Vafeiadou, Aikaterini, Bowling, Natalie ORCID: 0000-0001-5784-3664, Hammond, Claudia and Banissy, Michael (2022) Assessing individual differences in attitudes towards touch in treatment settings: introducing the touch and health scale. Health Psychology Open, 9 (2). pp. 1-19. ISSN 2055-1029 (Online) (doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/20551029221137008)

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Abstract

Individuals commonly receive touch in treatment settings, but there is limited research on how they perceive it. The current project sought to address this gap by: 1) developing the Touch & Health Scale (THS) - a novel instrument to measure attitudes to touch in treatment settings 2) assessing inter-individual differences in THS scores, and 3) examining the association between individuals’ THS scores and wellbeing. Data of a large U.K. adults sample (N > 12,000) were used. THS showed Cronbach's α between .636 and .816 and significant correlations (p < .001) with day-to-day attitudes to touch. THS scores differed as a function of extraversion and avoidant attachment style. Participants with more positive attitudes to touch in treatment settings showed greater wellbeing. Overall, the study highlights the importance of a personalised approach to touch in treatment settings and provides a new scale that may act as a screening tool for this purpose.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	health psychology; well-being; attachment style; scale; diversity; touch attitudes
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine R Medicine > RT Nursing
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences > School of Human Sciences (HUM)
Last Modified:	24 Nov 2022 09:56
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/38083

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