Abstract
Background/objectiveSTIs and HIV/AIDS are an important public health problem, transmitted by risky sex behaviours. In this context, it is necessary to identify protective factors, of those behaviours, as sexual self-concept. Sexual self-concept is a multidimensional trait (i.e. sexual self-esteem; sexual self-efficacy; and sexual assertiveness), but, in an extensive review, we did not find any measure to assess this multidimensional construct in a Spanish-speaking context. The objective of this research is development a scale to assess sexual self-concept in young people and adults.MethodTime-space sampling with a total size of 792 participants, coming from the two Chilean cities (i.e. Arica and Iquique) with the highest HIV rates, aged between 17 and 53 years old (ME = 23.42; SD = 6.33), with 66.2% women (N = 500), 33.6% men (N = 258).ResultsFinal scale has 16 items and 4 dimensions: sexual self-esteem, sexual self-efficacy, assertive sexual communication, and assertive sexual behaviour. The identified structure provides satisfactory levels of reliability (ω > .8) and presents robust evidence of validity, based on the internal structure of the test, using ESEM (RMSEA = .060; CFI = .99; TLI = .98), evidence of validity based on relationship to other variables (i.e. risky sexual behaviour) and measurement invariance between men and women.ConclusionsThe multidimensional scale of sexual self-concept has adequate psychometric properties to assess sexual self-concept in equivalent samples.
Highlights
Transmitted infections (STIs), including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and its active manifestation, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), are health problems to millions of people (Lee et al, 2017)
The identified structure provides satisfactory levels of reliability (ω > .8) and presents robust evidence of validity, based on the internal structure of the test, using exploratory structural equation modelling (ESEM) (RMSEA = .060; comparative fit index (CFI) = .99; Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) = .98), evidence of validity based on relationship to other variables and measurement invariance between men and women
The multidimensional scale of sexual self-concept has adequate psychometric properties to assess sexual selfconcept in equivalent samples
Summary
Transmitted infections (STIs), including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and its active manifestation, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), are health problems to millions of people (Lee et al, 2017). Ferrer-Urbina et al Psicologia: Reflexão e Crítica (2019) 32:22 et al, 2015) In this context, behavioural sciences have made efforts to identify and modify psychological factors associated with sexual risk behaviours, developing multiple research focused on identifying risk factors, such as poor sex education and early sexual initiation There is broad evidence that prevention should focus on reducing risk factors and on promoting protective factors, such as the organisation of gender identities and roles (e.g. Alimoradi et al, 2017; Rohleder et al, 2017), parental communication (e.g. Simons et al, 2016), access to information (e.g. Villegas et al, 2016), and active participation in organisations (e.g. Frumence et al, 2014)
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