The Assessment of Skin-Related Qol in Individuals Dissatisfied with Their Skin: Factor Structure and Responsiveness of the Padua Skin-Related Qol Questionnaire

The current studies aimed at providing preliminary evidence about the factor structure, reliability, and responsiveness of the Padua Skin-Related QoL (PSRQ) questionnaire, an Italian self-report measure assessing skin-related Quality of Life (QoL) in people dissatisfied with their skin. The PSRQ was administered to 150 dermatological cosmetics consumers to test its factor structure and internal consistency. A further sample made up of 84 dermatological cosmetics consumers was then enrolled to evaluate the responsiveness of the PSRQ. Findings revealed the existence of 4 factors explaining the 54.8% of variance. Thirteen items of the original version were removed because they loaded on more than one factor or they had insufficient loadings; the final version of the PSRQ comprised 50 items, and internal consistency was excellent (.81 < αs < .95). As regards responsiveness, only the “Positive feelings and emotions” scale resulted to be sensitive to change: individuals in the Experimental group reported significantly higher scores, after using a basic cream, compared to individuals in the Waiting list condition. Current findings suggest that the PSRQ is a reliable measure capable of assessing multiple aspects of skin-related QoL in the target population. Further studies assessing its psychometric properties in different samples are recommended. * Corresponding author: Gioia Bottesi, Ph.D. Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, via Venezia 8, 35131 Padova, Italy. Telephone: +39 049 827 6256, Fax (shared): +39 049 827 6600. E-mail: gioia.bottesi@unipd.it.