The workshop on the corporeality of the University of Salerno. A study on the evaluation of corporal self-esteem of students with disabilities

Oftentimes, in motor disability, the bodily experience can generate anxiety, due to living the difference of one’s body compared to that of non-disabled people and, possible difficulties in the independent management of one’s bodily functions (Parente, 2005; Festa and Drigho, 2013). This can have an impact on one’s self-confidence. On the basis of these considerations, during the academic year 2014-15, the University of Salerno promoted and launched a project called “Workshop on corporeality”, directed to all students, with the intention of: - Promoting the development of possible body languages, starting from the experience one’s body; - Analyzing through stimuli and symbolic languages the bodily experience of each participant; - Building or rebuilding, by working in groups, the body esteem of each participant; - Strengthening the possibilities of meeting and relationship between the participants through physical contact and the sharing of a common project. At the beginning of this path, we administered to 22 participants (with and without motor disabilities; mean age 19.11; all females) the TMA questionnaire (Multidimensional Assessment Test by Bracken, 1993), in particular the scale of bodily experience. The aim was to assess: 1) if university students with physical disabilities had negative self-esteem, especially in the bodily expeience; compare these data with those of a group of female university students with typical development (comparative group); 2) whether university students, disabled and not disabled, with a negative bodily experience chose to attend a workshop on corporeality. The results show how the body esteem of both students with disabilities and non-disabled participants in the workshop is “slightly negative” or “very negative”. Self-esteem for the comparison group was found to be “average”.