Adolescent Clothing and Adjustment

Abstract

The major objectives of this research were to explore two basic general questions: (1) does race, sex, or grade influence clothing and social and personal adjustment variables, and (2) what are the relationships among clothing attitudes and adjustment variables? The subjects were 213 fe males and males (age range 14–19), Blacks and Whites, ninth and tenth grade, in a city high school. Demographic facts of race, sex, and grade were transcribed from school records. A question naire was designed in three sections to collect data for clothing attitudes and social and personal adjustment variables.Differences in race, sex, and grade were tested by analysis of variance. Chi‐square statistics were computed to test that the coefficients of correlation were from the same population.Race, sex, and grade did not have an effect on the clothing attitude, dressing for self. Sex had an effect on feelings of clothing deprivation, with females experiencing more deprivation than males. The effect of sex on dressing for others indicated that females more than males were likely to dress for others. The white subjects regarded dressing for others as more important than the black subjects. Tenth grade subjects regarded dressing for others as more important than 9th grade sub jects. Self‐acceptance was affected by sex. Females had lower self‐acceptance than the males, with black 10th graders having the lowest self‐acceptance. Black subjects accepted Blacks socially, and Whites accepted Whites.