The relationship between clothing interest and certain demographic variables of a selected group of women of middle years

Abstract

The major purpose of this study was to determine whether differences in clothing interest existed between selected groups of women of 25 to 65 years, and to identify the dimensions of clothing interest important to them. The relationship between clothing interest and certain demographic characteristics was also investigated.

A modified version of the Creekmore Importance of Clothing questionnaire was used to measure clothing interest. The questionnaire and a demographic data form were distributed by mail to women in the Washington, D.C. area resulting in 312 usable replies. The subjects were predominantly married, middle cJass, employed women with small fair.ilies. Most of them had college educations and higher than average incomes.

Multivariate analysis procedures were used to determine the differences in clothing interest between the four age groups. Wilk's Lambda was used to detect statistical significance. Simultaneous confidence intervals were then computed to determine which groups were different and on which variables they differed. Significant differences were found on two factors of clothing interest--concern with personal appearance and enhancement of security.

Multiple correlation coefficients were computed to determine the possibility of and relationship between each of the five factors of clothing interest and the selected demographic variables. No significant relationships were found.

The results indicated that more mature women had less need for clothing to build self-confidence and more concern with personal appearance than the younger women in the study.