Some psychosocial aspects of nonlethal chondrodysplasias: III. Self-esteem in children and adults.

Self-esteem is considered one of the most important personality attributes. It correlates with physical and mental health and the ability to cope with stress. The attitudes of others, and the experiences of interacting with them, are considered as playing a major role in the development of self-esteem. Thus, those patients with disproportionate short stature due to a chondrodysplasia can reasonably be considered to be at risk of developing low self-esteem. In this study, self-concept and self-esteem were measured in 159 children and adults with various chondrodysplasias and disproportionate short stature. The results from the children did not suggest that they had a lower concept of self than did their unaffected sibs or a sample of average-size persons. By contrast, although the adults did not differ significantly from a population sample, they scored significantly below their unaffected sibs. There also appeared to be a trend to lower scores among women, patients who had had an unaffected parent, and those who were married to an unaffected spouse, although none of those differences were statistically significant.