Honors Theses

Date of Award

Spring 5-9-2020

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Laura J. Dixon

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

Acne is one of the most common and burdensome skin diseases in the United States. Many factors, such as stress and psychological symptoms are believed to contribute to the development and exacerbation of this skin disease, and prior research suggests a cyclic relationship between these factors and acne. College students are known to experience heightened levels of stress and psychological morbidities; yet, most of the previous research on acne and these factors have been limited to adolescents. As such, the current study aimed to assess the relationships between acne, stress, depression, and anxiety in college students over a longitudinal period using daily diary methodology. The results suggest a relationship between daily stress and final reports of acne symptoms and acne quality of life. Contradictory to predictions, there were no significant correlations found between daily objective acne and final stress measurements; however, there were significant correlations found between daily stress and final subjective acne. Furthermore, there were no significant correlations found between daily depression and daily objective or subjective acne. Finally, there were no significant correlations between daily anxiety and daily objective acne, yet a positive relationship was found between daily anxiety and daily subjective acne. These results suggest the importance of stress in the exacerbation of acne and also demonstrate the need for more research to better understand the relationship between acne, stress, and psychological morbidities. Future studies should further investigate these relationships using longitudinal methodology.

Accessibility Status

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Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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