Psychometric properties of the German version of the Self Image Scale (SIS-D) in a sample of cancer patients

• Published in: PloS one 2020-10, Vol.15 (10), p.e0240619-e0240619
• Main Authors: Brederecke, Jan, Zimmermann, Tanja
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acceptance tests; Adjustment; Anxiety; Anxiety - pathology; Anxiety - psychology; Beliefs, opinions and attitudes; Body image; Body Image - psychology; Breast cancer; Cancer; Cancer patients; Cancer therapies; Colorectal cancer; Correlation; Correlation analysis; Evaluation; Factor analysis; Female; Femininity; Gender aspects; Humans; Intimacy; Male; Masculinity; Medical diagnosis; Medical imaging; Medicine and Health Sciences; Men; Middle Aged; Neoplasms - diagnosis; Neoplasms - epidemiology; Neoplasms - pathology; Neoplasms - psychology; Patients; Perceptions; Personal appearance; Personal Satisfaction; Physiological aspects; Population; Prostate cancer; Psychometrics; Psychosomatic medicine; Psychotherapy; Quality of Life; Quantitative psychology; Questionnaires; Reliability analysis; Reliability aspects; Self Concept; Self image; Sex Characteristics; Sex differences; Sexual Partners - psychology; Womens health
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0240619

A cancer disease can affect the satisfaction with the physical appearance, so that the standardized assessment of the body image is important in cancer patients. The German version of the Self-Image Scale is a self-report measure that uses two subscales to assess appearance satisfaction (self-acceptance) and perceptions of partners' acceptance of their appearance (partner-acceptance). The present study aimed to validate the Self-Image Scale's two-factor structure in a sample of cancer patients with a variety of different diagnoses to further increase its utility. Confirmatory factor analysis methods were used to examine the two-factor model in a sample of cancer patients (N = 278). Scale reliability and validity were then assessed through internal consistency measures and correlations with external criteria such as depressiveness, anxiety, distress, and relationship satisfaction. The proposed factor structure was supported by the results and the internal consistencies were good with α = .83 for the self-acceptance scale and α = .88 for the partner-acceptance scale while additional correlations with external criteria were observed as expected. The results support the use of the German version of the Self-Image Scale in cancer patients in general. Future research directions include validation across further entities of cancer, the in-depth investigation of sex differences, and research in other diseases that might impact body image.