Department of Ophthalmology, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Middle East Afr J Ophthalmol. 2021 Jan 19;27(4):218-223. doi: 10.4103/meajo.MEAJO_160_20. eCollection 2020 Oct-Dec.
Children with strabismus may face difficulties interacting with their peers in elementary school. This study investigates the psychosocial effect of different types of strabismus on Saudi children's selection of a playmate.
Photographs of orthotropic children were digitally modified to simulate various magnitudes of strabismus. Orthotropic children with normal visual acuity viewed 18 sets of paired photographs and were asked to choose a playmate from each pair. Parents were asked to fill out a questionnaire on their socioeconomic background and to determine whether surgery should be indicated in strabismic patients for psychosocial reasons. Parents were also asked to rate their perception of seven personal characteristics of two images of the same child (one orthotropic and one strabismic).
Two hundred and thirty-three children, aged 3-15 years (mean age: 9.94 [3.6] years), were studied. Children aged ≤6 years were significantly more likely not to distinguish between orthotropic children and those with strabismus ( < 0.001). Out of 233 participants, 69.6% were significantly in favor of orthotropic faces as opposed to 30.4% ( < 0.0001). Children perceived esotropia as less disturbing than exotropia and hypertropia ( < 0.001). Smaller magnitudes of strabismus were significantly preferred over larger angles ( < 0.001). Parents judged strabismic faces more negatively than orthotropic faces on all seven characteristics. Almost 88.4% of the adults thought that strabismic patients should undergo surgery for correction.
Our findings suggest that children with apparent strabismus are perceived negatively and might be subjected to social alienation at a young age. Therefore, there is a need for strategies to address negative social bias toward children with strabismus and to enhance their peer acceptance in our society.
斜视儿童在小学阶段可能难以与同龄人互动。本研究旨在调查不同类型斜视对沙特儿童玩伴选择的社会心理影响。
使用数字技术对正位儿童的照片进行修改，以模拟不同程度的斜视。正常视力的正位儿童观看 18 组配对照片，并被要求从每对照片中选择一个玩伴。家长填写一份关于其社会经济背景的问卷，并确定斜视患者是否因社会心理原因需要手术。家长还被要求对同一张儿童照片的两个图像（一个正位和一个斜视）的七个个人特征进行评分。
共研究了 233 名 3-15 岁（平均年龄：9.94[3.6]岁）的儿童。6 岁及以下的儿童明显更不可能区分正位儿童和斜视儿童（<0.001）。在 233 名参与者中，69.6%的人明显更喜欢正位面孔，而 30.4%的人不喜欢（<0.0001）。儿童认为内斜视比外斜视和上斜视更不令人不安（<0.001）。较小的斜视角度明显比较大的角度更受欢迎（<0.001）。父母对斜视面孔的评价在七个特征上均比正位面孔更差。近 88.4%的成年人认为斜视患者应接受手术矫正。
我们的研究结果表明，患有明显斜视的儿童会被负面看待，并且可能在年幼时就被社会排斥。因此，需要采取策略来解决斜视儿童的负面社会偏见，增强他们在我们社会中的同伴接受度。
