Beyond the Group Mean: Individual Response Heterogeneity in Social Appearance Anxiety, Anxiety and Interpersonal Functioning Following Aesthetic Surgery-A Prospective Controlled Study

Background/Objectives: The psychological consequences of elective aesthetic surgery are usually evaluated by comparing group means, an approach that is insensitive to change that differs in direction across individuals. This prospective controlled study examined both group-level and individual-level psychological change following aesthetic surgery.

Methods

Forty adults undergoing elective aesthetic procedures and thirty-nine comparison participants completed the Social Appearance Anxiety Scale (SAAS), an anxiety inventory, and the Interpersonal Relationships Dimensions Scale (IRDS) at baseline and three months later. Analyses comprised mixed-design repeated-measures ANOVA, linear mixed-effects models, Aligned Rank Transform ANOVA, two one-sided equivalence tests, Bayes factors, variance-of-change comparisons, three-month stability coefficients, and Reliable Change Index classification.