Comparative Analysis on the Visual Body Proportion of Girls in Middle and High School

The purpose of this study was to identify the body proportions of girls in middle and high school who have been a major sales target of clothing manufacturers and thus to provide the basic information on the proportion of human body, which is essential for manufacturer to produce clothing and for individual consumers to select right apparels to wear and purchase. The subjects were 133 girls in middle school and 141 girls in high school. As measuring instruments, the Martin's anthropometer, tapelines, and belts for marking waistline were used. In order to analyze the data, t-test and factor analysis were used. The measurement of vertical distance between vertex and measuring points, showed a significant difference between the high school group and middle school group in every item. In the comparison of eight head proportion between the two groups, middle school students had 7.2 head proportion while girls in high school had 6.9 head proportion in detail. The factor analysis of major divided body parts of the two groups indicated that waist-hip and hip-crotch, constituting lower trunk together, vertex-apex nasi, and apex nasi-back neck point, constituting head together, back neck point-spina scapula and spina scapula-waist, constituting posterior of upper body together, and mentum-bust point and bust point-waist, constituting anterior of upper body together, were in inverse proportion.