110 Validation of a Short-Form Version of the YSEX? Instrument

Abstract

Research has established that people have sex for a large and diverse number of reasons. In prior studies, participants expressed 237 somewhat distinct reasons for engaging in sex, which clustered based on factor analyses into 13 subscales (Meston & Buss, 2007). These analyses formed the basis of a 141-item YSEX? instrument. Although the YSEX? instrument has shown impressive psychometric properties, the time required to complete such a lengthy measure may be a barrier to its use in many research contexts, which are necessarily time-constrained. A short-form version of the YSEX? instrument was previously developed (YSEX?-SF) using the sample from the original YSEX? validation (presented by Freihart, Kilimnik, Buss, & Meston at ISSWSH 2018). The aim of the current analysis was to validate the YSEX?-SF on a new sample. The new YSEX?-SF contains 28 items, including two items for each of the 13 original subscales, and two items for a new subscale, Reproduction. This instrument was administered to a new sample concurrently with the original YSEX? instrument and several theoretically-related measures including the Dirty Dozen and Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (N=223). Cross-form and construct validity were assessed by examining the consistency of the factor structure between the YSEX? and YSEX?-SF, as well as conducting bivariate correlations to assess theoretically predicted relationships between YSEX-SF? subscales and related measures.