The Effectiveness of "Assertiveness and Effective Communication Skills" Training on Self-Esteem and Body Self-Relations in People with Chronic Skin Diseases

Introduction: Low self-esteem and poor body image cause patients with skin diseases to lack Assertiveness and avoid social interactions. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of "Assertiveness and Effective Communication Skills" training on self-esteem and self-communication in chronic skin patients.  Methods: The method of the present study was quasi-experimental with pre-test, post-test and follow-up with control group. The statistical population included people with chronic skin diseases such as psoriasis, vitiligo and alopecia who referred to two dermatology clinics located in Tehran and Rasoul Akram Hospital in Tehran in 2019. Among them, 38 eligible volunteers were enrolled in the study and were randomly assigned to the two groups of training: "Courage and Effective Communication Skills" and Control. The research instruments included the demographic questionnaire, “Cooper Smith Self-Esteem Inventory” and “Multidimensional Body Self-Relations Questionnaire”. The content validity of the instruments was measured by qualitative method and the reliability by internal consistency method by calculating Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Data were collected after conducting 8 sessions of training for the intervention group. Data were analyzed in SPSS. 24. Results: In the present study, the interactive effect of group on time on body self-related subscales (P=0.019, F= 4.21), body surface parts (P= 0.026, F = 3.85) and self-classification of weight (P= 0.015, F=4.47) was significant at the level of 0.05. The interactive effect of group on time on the subscales of general self-esteem (P= 0.002, F=6.68), home self-esteem (P=0.004, F=6.52) and social self-esteem (P= 0.001, F=7.01) was significant at the level of 0.01. Conclusions: Training "Assertiveness and Effective Communication Skills" is effective on self-esteem and body self-communication in people with chronic skin diseases such as psoriasis, vitiligo and alopecia. Therefore, training in "Assertiveness and Effective Communication Skills" is recommended for people with skin diseases.  Keywords: Assertiveness, Body Image, Effective communication, Self-Esteem, Chronic Skin Diseases.