How Skin Color Discrepancy In Women Of Color Relates To Perceived Racism, Colorism, And Skin Bleaching Frequency

Women of color in the United States are impacted by both racism and colorism, forces that sometimes translate into dissatisfaction with their skin tone and the dangerous practice of skin bleaching. This study developed a measure of skin color dissatisfaction called the Skin Color Discrepancy (SCD), a metric assessing the distance between natural and ideal skin tones, meant to be sensitive and inclusive of darker skin tones. To test the construct validity of the SCD, it was compared to Skin Color Questionnaire (STQ) and Skin Color Satisfaction Scale (SCSS), with each regressed onto perceived racism, perceived colorism, and frequency of skin bleaching behaviors in separate multiple regressions. Contrary to expectations, the SCSS measure was a superior predictor of all the related constructs, suggesting that perception of skin tone dissatisfaction outperforms a measure of distance between natural and ideal skin tones. However, participants found the SCD’s color palette more representative–and thus more inclusive–of their natural skin tone than the STQ scale’s palette. The present findings suggest that the SCSS is a useful measure of skin color dissatisfaction and that the SCD may serve as a useful metric of distance from natural to ideal skin tone.