Negative social bias against children with strabismus.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether the presence of noticeable strabismus creates a negative social bias against children.


METHODS
Photographs of two boys and two girls were digitally altered to create photographs of the same child in orthotropic, esotropic and exotropic states. Elementary school teachers rated their perceptions of the children's personal characteristics (using a 10-item list of personal characteristics) based on their responses to these whole-face photographs. The participants were also asked to answer five questions related to the first impressions created by the photographs.


RESULTS
Children with esotropia and exotropia were rated more negatively than orthotropic children on all 10 characteristics. Children with esotropia were rated more negatively than those with exotropia on most of these characteristics.


CONCLUSIONS
Children with noticeable strabismus are viewed negatively. Hence, correction of strabismus may provide psychosocial benefits even when there is no hope of improving visual function.
Uretmen
Onder
O
Department of Ophthalmology, Ege University School of Medicine, Bornova, Izmir, Turkey. uretmen@med.ege.edu.tr
Egrilmez
Sait
S
Kose
Süheyla
S
Pamukçu
Kemal
K
Akkin
Cezmi
C
Palamar
Melis
M
D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D004948:Esotropia / Q000473:pathology; D005099:Exotropia / Q000473:pathology; D005178:Faculty; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010781:Photography; D011287:Prejudice; D012574:Schools; D012919:Social Behavior; D013285:Strabismus / Q000473:pathology*; D013334:Students; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires