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Skin disease are very common in human being and a large number of people visit to the hospitals due to dermatological problems. It is indeed true that (beauty is beautiful), where skin of the people plays very important role to make them attractive or unattractive and / or giving the sense of or the feeling of mixture of the two. Vitiligo is a somewhat common skin disease. It has an effect on how someone looks, which has sometimes direct and sometimes indirect effect on human feelings giving rise of an inferiority complex which is nothing but purely psychological state of one’s personality. In order to improve the quality of life and psychological health of vitiligo patients, it is crucial to recognize this reality and address the psychological aspects of the condition. Persons body image is greatly influenced by their skin, which is a sensory organ and is sensitive to emotional impulses (Gupta & Voorchees, 1990, Koblenzer, 1983). It is, in fact, true that the major portion of the human appearance is reflected from color of skin of an individual. Appearance of skin determines a person’s body and personality image and any pathological change in skin of a person can decrease self-esteem and may have individual’s sense of isolation from the society (Prasad, Dogra & Kanwar, 2003). According to a number of research, vitiligo has negative impact on infected person’s psychological and social health. These researches have also shown that more than half of the patient with Vitiligo disease have reported that people stare at them, 20% reported that they are labeled, 25% have shown that Vitiligo create problems in their relationship with stranger (Porter, Beuf, Lerner & Nordlund,1986). The quality of life for those who are inflicted with vitiligo have stated to be significantly impacted by the condition. Therefore, it's crucial to understand and address the psychological aspects of this illness. Psychological Well-being- It is a criterion variable which seems to be the hallmark of overall adjustment. It is a matter of fact that home as well as work environment are influenced by people’s psychological well-being and as a result, it has a larger impact on their private and social lives. It is witnessed that people with high psychological well-being have good mental health and subsequently have their effective adjustments with their socio-environmental surroundings too. On the other hand, people with low psychological well-being may exhibit dissatisfaction, bad social relationships, and improper adjustments with work environment, among other things. One's life might suffer from poor psychological health in a number of ways in which the sense of inferiority plays very important role. WHO (2011) stated that sound health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” According to Bhogle and Prakash (1995), the term psychological well-being implies a wide range of meanings, usually related with wellness. It is important to highlight that earlier studies have described, "wellness" as the lack of anxiety, depression as well as the absence of illness. In a nutshell, it is imperative to mention that positive thinking as a result of positive socio-psychological experience and behaviour are well considered as psychological well-being. Inferiority Complex It is something very detrimental for human personality that has negative impact on all sort of human behavior especially the psychological well-being. Under normal circumstances, the feeling of inferiority or a sense of incompleteness is the great driving force of human. In other words, human have pushed by the need to overcome their inferiority and pulled by the desire to be superior. Every individual has a feeling of inferiority to some level. This is not always having a bad impact of personality. Sometimes it works as positive motivating forces. An inferiority complex is the emotion that stem when a person judges himself abnormally. It ultimately means that one’s self-esteem is low (Kun, 2005). Adler (1942) stated that an inferiority complex arises from the lacking of the person’s temperament and that it is a persistent state of tension and strain. According to Adler (1998), inferiority is an emotion that arises from loss of self-confidence that resulting inferiority complex. It is a basic emotion that present in all human, and heavily influences his or her action. If a person is unable to overcome their inferiority complex that develops from a continuous and infinite comparison with others, they will adopt aggression, fatigue, stress and frustration.

Various researches showed that skin disease viz, vitiligo have bad impact on daily functioning and psychological well-being of the patients. Lone, (2021) investigated that vitiligo disease impact negatively on normal functioning, proper growth and development, self- acceptance and autonomy of the person. And patients also experience heightened social pressure because of this disease. Vitiligo has a moderate to very severe effect on the quality-of-life index of the patients. It is a psych-cutaneous illness that does not only disturb the patient’s physical health, but also their mental and psychological status (Nasser, et. al., 2021).

Barbee and Summer (1951) presented that their patients with vitiligo had a severe inferiority complex, bitterness, shame and isolation. Vitiligo patients have many psychological problems. Researches on vitiligo patients indicated that 10% patients feel depressed, 7-9% have dysthymia, 20% sleep disturbance, 10% suicidal thoughts, 3.3% suicidal attempt and 3.3% anxiety found in those who severely affected with vitiligo (Szczurko & Boon, 2008; Ongenae, Beelaert, Van Geel & Naeyaert, 2006). Studies also indicated that vitiligo patients feel depressed, embarrassed or worried to interact with other persons (Ahmad, Ahmad & Nasreen, 2007). Researches shown that skin patients are feel depressed and having very low self-esteem (Shuster, Fisher & Harris, 1987). 

Table 1:

Showing Demographic Characteristics of the Sample (N=100)

Gender (100)	Family history	Marital Status
Female=50 Male= 50	Yes= 23 No=77	Unmarried=52 Married=48
Belief aboutthe cause of disease	Duration of onset of disease	Social status
Food=8 Medicine=18 Myth=7 Don’t know=67	1-5years=82 6-10years=10 11-15years=3 16-20years=5	Upper=7 Middle=79 Lower=14

Participants In the present study N=100 vitiligo patients were taken from various clinics of Mau Nath Bhanjan, Mau, UP. The participants age varied from 20 to 50 years. For this, purposive sampling technique was used. It was a homogeneous sample in the sense that all participants selected were having the same common characteristic viz, suffering from vitiligo disease.

The data were collected on N=100 vitiligo patients. Purposive sampling technique was used to collect the data. Researcher contacted the patients individually from various clinics of Mau Nath Bhanjan Mau UP. Before administering the questionnaire, firstly, investigator introduced herself and the purpose of the study was told to them and thereby, rapport was developed with them. Patients generally took 30 minutes time in giving the responses to both the questionnaires along with their biographical information.

Researchers had taken the following ethical consideration during the planning of the study:

1. Confidentiality of the patients’ responses.

2. Participants agreement to participate in the study.

3. Participants are guaranteed that the data will only be used for research purpose.

By using SPSS 25.0, the data were analyzed and Multiple Regression Analysis (stepwise) were obtained to get the results.

Table: 1

Showing Descriptive Statistics of Inferiority Complex along with its dimension and Psychological Wellbeing among vitiligo patients (N=100).

Variables	Minimum	Maximum	Mean	Std. Deviation
Affective (X1)	13	25	18.01	2.067
Behavioural (X2)	8	20	14.51	2.533
Cognitive (X3)	10	23	17.10	3.020
Inferiority complex (X4)	37	64	49.60	5.942
Psychological Wellbeing(Y)	40	74	58.94	6.688

Table 1. Showing the descriptive statistics of inferiority complex and psychological wellbeing and its various dimensions among vitiligo patients. The score of inferiority complex and its various dimension were found among vitiligo patients i.e., affective (N=100, Mean=18, SD=2.067), behavioural (N=100, Mean=14.51, SD=2.533), cognitive (N=100, Mean=17.10, SD=3.02) and inferiority complex (N=100, Mean=49.60, SD=5.942). The score of psychological wellbeing (N=100, Mean=58.90, SD=6.688) was found among vitiligo patients.  Having given the description of the descriptive statistics of the two variables viz. inferiority complex along with its dimension and psychological well-being, it is clear that, means and SDs for various variables are proper.

Table: 2

Showing Multiple Linear Regression Analysis (stepwise) of vitiligo patients (N=100)

Predictors: Inferiority Complex (X₄) Cognitive (X₃)

Criterion: Psychological Well-being (Y)

X₄=Inferiority Complex, X₃=Cognitive

Table No. 2 shows the predictive influence of inferiority complex and its various dimension viz., Affective, Behavioural and Cognitive on psychological well-being among vitiligo patients. Inferiority complex as a whole (R²=.516, F (1, 198) =104.51, p<0.001) and its Cognitive dimension (ΔR²=.021, ΔF (1, 197) =4.432, p<0.05) emerged as significant negative predictors of psychological well-being. It can be inferred that inferiority complex and its cognitive component explain 51% and 2.1% of variance in psychological wellbeing of vitiligo patients. Beta value (β=-.507 & β=-.676) indicating the negative relationship between predictor and criterion variable. Further, Cohen’s effect size value (f²=1.066) suggested large strength contribution of inferiority complex to psychological wellbeing. And also found to suggest small (f²=.021) contribution of cognitive dimension to psychological wellbeing among vitiligo patients. Therefore, hypothesis (H_a) stated that inferiority complex and its various dimensions will negatively influence the psychological wellbeing among vitiligo patients stand accepted.

Table No. 2 clearly indicated that inferiority complex most strong negative predictor of psychological wellbeing. It means that as inferiority complex increases among vitiligo patients their psychological wellbeing decreases and vice versa. It is because of the fact that vitiligo patients have negative feeling and thoughts about themselves i.e., lack of self-confidence, depression, anxiety and body shaming. Previous findings clearly demonstrated that vitiligo creates many social, mental and psychological problems among patients (Saleki & Yazdanfar, 2015; Aghaei, Sodifi, Jafri, Mazharinia & Finlay, 2004).

Cognitive dimension of inferiority complex negatively influences the psychological well-being of vitiligo patients. The pattern of result is almost on the same direction as have been shown by earlier studies. Researches remarked that vitiligo patients felt depression, anxiety, anger, self-consciousness and embarrassment (Teovska, Eleftheriadou, & Guarneri, 2012) that indirectly cause for inferiority complex therefore, affects patients’ psychological well-being. A few studies have also shown that vitiligo patients have negative emotions like shame or embarrassment, anxiety, lack of self-confidence and even depression (Jowett, & Ryan, 1985 & Mattoo, Handa, Kaur, Gupta). Therefore, negative emotions experienced by vitiligo patients impair their social, physical and psychological health.

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