My Skin – a self-questionnaire for assessment of the emotional-cognitive representation of skin

Abstract

Background The aims of this paper are: 1) to present the My Skin questionnaire, 2) to report the preliminary results of a study on the emotional-cognitive skin representation, and 3) to encourage dermatologists and other specialists to use the My Skin questionnaire in their research. The inspiration for a new tool measuring the emotional and cognitive representation of skin was the psychological conception of the ‘skin ego’. Participants and procedure My Skin, a self-questionnaire (MSQ), was used to measure the emotional and cognitive representation of an individual’s skin. It consists of two main scales: satisfaction with the skin condition (AB) and awareness of the biopsychosocial functions of the skin (C). The Body Esteem Scale, Body Self Questionnaire and Self-Esteem Scale were used to validate the MSQ. The participants were: healthy individuals (n = 343) and dermatology patients (psoriasis, vitiligo, juvenile acne, n = 84). Results The psychometric parameters are presented in this article. The internal consistency reliabilities for subscales are in the range of .75 and .95. This article also presents preliminary basic statistics for the skin representation of dermatology patients and healthy people. Conclusions My Skin questionnaire is a valid tool for assessing cognitive and emotional representation of skin and may be used in psychodermatology and esthetic dermatology to assess satisfaction with and awareness of skin.