Abstract
Persons with motor impairment often have difficulties in dressing and undressing without assistance. The purpose of this study was to grasp their consciousness toward clothing life, to analyze the difference in consciousness depending on their ages, their characters, and their abilities to dress and undress independently, and to clarify whether they placed a greater emphasis on “design” or “dressing and undressing” when choosing clothes. Research was conducted on 66 women with motor impairment, aged from 20-65 years old and living in the metropolitan area, in 2001. The research was conducted using interviews and questionnaire forms. The results are as follows : 1) Most persons with motor impairment wore ordinary ready-made clothes. 2) Consciousness toward clothing was composed of five factors, “interest in dressing, ” “self-consciousness, ” “possessiveness, ” “sociality, ” and “self-respect.” 3) Those who emphasized “design” when choosing clothes, compared with those who emphasized “dressing and undressing, ” had higher factor scores in “possessiveness, ” “self-consciousness, ” and “interest in dressing.” 4) This research clarified the fact that consciousness toward clothing life was not influenced by whether they could dress and undress without assistance.
