Relationship between self-concept and successful rehabilitation.

One hundred fifty-seven spinal cord injured (SCI) individuals from three SCI centers were tested to investigate the relationship between self-concept and adjustment to rehabilitation. It was hypothesized that strong positive correlations would be found that neither time since injury nor level of injury would be a factor. The Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (TSCS) provided a measure of self-concept. Criteria for differentiating adjustment into a six-point scale was used by nurses to assess rehabilitation success. Thirteen subsets of the TSCS correlated significantly with the nurses assessment. A norm deviate score from the TSCS showed P less than .001. Variables of sex, inpatient/outpatient and time since injury were not significant; however, level of injury was slightly significant.