The Skin Picking Impact Scale (SPIS) - Scale development and psychometric analyses

The Skin Picking Impact Scale (SPIS) is a self-report instrument developed to assess the psychosocial consequences of repetitive skin picking. An init ial 28-item scale was administered to 31 individuals with severe self-injur ious skin picking and 78 individuals with non-self-injurious skin picking. Item difficulty. levels and part-whole correlations resulted in a 10-item s cale with good internal consistency. SPIS scores for those with self-injuri ous skin picking were significantly higher than for those with non-self-inj urious skin picking. SPIS scores for those with self-injurious skin picking correlated with duration of daily picking, satisfaction during picking, an d shame subsequent to picking, as well as Beck Depression Inventory and Bec k Anxiety Inventory scores. Sensitivity and specificity analyses indicate t hat a scale cutoff score of 7 optimally discriminates individuals with self -injurious skin picking from those with non-self-injurious skin picking.