Evaluation of the psychometric properties of the sexual violence behavior

Abstract

ABSTRACT Introduction The relationship between impulsivity and sexual compulsivity may be established as one of the greatest predictors of sexual violence. To better evaluate the violent sexual behavior in sexually compulsive individuals, we delineated a Sexual Violence Factor (SVF) based on the Violence Factor of the Compulsive Sexual Behavior Inventory (CSBI-22). Objective This study sought to evaluate the psychometric properties of the SVF. Method A total of 230 sexually compulsive and 79 non sexually compulsive (controls) individuals according to ICD-10 F52.7 Excessive Sexual Drive diagnosis, answered the CSBI-22, the Sexual Compulsive Scale (SCS) variables and the Barrat Impulsiveness Scale (BIS). To assess the main questions related to sexual violence behavior itself from the CSBI-22 in our study, we ran a factorial analysis to build the SVF. The items with factor loadings of 0.45 or more were considered to meaningfully load onto a factor. We ran the alpha of Cronbach to assess internal consistency, spearman correlation to investigate the convergent validity (with the SCS, and the BIS), and Mann Whitney test to investigate the discriminant validity between sexually compulsive and controls. All the analysis were considered significative if p value < 0.05. Results From the nine itens which compose the CSBI-22 violence domaine, the factorial analysis resulted in three factors. The first factor enrolled the following five items: 1) Have you ever hit, kicked, punched, slapped, thrown, chocked, restrained, or beaten any of your sexual partners?, 2) Have you given others physical pain for sexual pleasure?, 3) In fighting, have you been hit, kicked, punched, slapped, thrown, chocked, restrained, or beaten by your current or most recent partner?, 4) Have you received physical pain for sexual pleasure?, and 5) Have you been forced to have sex with your husband, wife, or lover?. The second factor enrolled the following itens: 1) How often have you been arrested or legally apprehended for your sexual behavior? and 2) Have you been watched masturbating or having sex without giving permission?, and the third factor enrolled the following itens: 1) Have you ever hit, kicked, punched, slapped, thrown, chocked, restrained, or beaten any of your sexual partners?, and 2) Have you received money to have sex? We decided to consider the SVF as the factor 1 because it enrolled most of the items expressing violence between romantic sexual partners. For the SVF, the cumulative factor of 35.41. The SVF presented low internal consistency (alpha = 0.51), positive and significant correlation with the SCS (Spearman = 0.39; p<0.001) and the BIS (Spearman=0.29; p<0.001), and well discriminant property (z = -5.5, p<0.001) between sexually compulsives (median 6, IQR 5;7) and controls (median 5, IQR 5;6). Discussion The SVF presented satisfactory convergent and discrimnant validity and can be used to investigate expressions of sexual violence in the context of romantic/sexual relationship. However, the low cumulative factor and internal consistency suggests the importance of new studies to build new measures to get a more comprehensive understanding of the sexual violence conceptualization. Disclosure Work supported by industry: no.