Social appearance anxiety and fear of negative evaluation in college going students with acne vulgaris

Abstract

Acne vulgaris is a common, chronic skin diseaseassociated withinflammatory and non-inflammatory lesions, often leading to scarring. The disease causes detrimental effect on psychological, psychosocial and physical well beingresulting in social appearance anxiety as well as fear of negative evaluation in such individuals; however its impact in Indian population has not been adequately evaluated. Present study was, therefore, aimed at evaluating social appearance anxiety and fear of negative evaluation in college going students with acne vulgaris. The study included 130 college going studentsbetween 18 to 25 years of age with acne vulgaris. Social Appearance Anxiety Scale (Hart et al., 2008) and Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation (Leary, 1983) scale was used to evaluate social appearance anxiety and fear of negative evaluation respectively in individuals having acne from 3 months to more than 1 year. Both social appearance anxiety and fear of negative evaluation were positively correlated in all three-time periods. There was a significant difference in social appearance anxiety across three times, however there was no significant difference with respect to fear of negative evaluation during these periods. The study has thus shown that individuals suffering from acne vulgaris had social appearance anxiety and the fear of negative evaluation, which progressedwith the duration of the disease. Therefore, such individualsshould undergo psychological evaluation, and psychotherapeutic interventions along with pharmacological treatment of the disease. Also, the psychological evaluationand intervention should be an integral part of the treatment program.