Adjustment to visible stigma: The case of the severely burned

A study of 89 young adults who suffered a severe burn injury in childhood was undertaken to assess their psychosocial adjustment to this devastating injury which usually results in visible scarring. The sample consisted of 41 males and 48 females ages 16–28 who were 4–23 years post-burn, with a mean body surface burn of 27% (2–89%). Results indicate that most of these subjects had made a positive adjustment to their injury, as measured by three categories of adjustment: (1) social integration, (2) emotional adjustment and (3) self-esteem. From the analysis of social integration, it was found that the subject population did not differ substantially from the general population in terms of marital status, education, occupation or participation in community and leisure time activities. Analysis of emotional adjustment indicated that the subjects who were able to accept themselves and put their experience in perspective with their worldview had made a positive emotional adjustment. Self-esteem scores were comparable to established norms and were not statistically related to sex, age at date of the burn injury, total body surface area burned, body areas burned or the time since the burn injury. Only present age showed a statistically significant relationship to self-esteem, the meaning of which is questionable. This study concludes that victims of severe burns can and do make a positive adjustment to their injury and that the resulting outcome is not influenced by physical variables relating to the severity of the burn or variables relating to age and sex. Further research will investigate aspects of the burn victim's social support system and individual coping ability in relation to adjustment to severe burns.