Abstract
The present study was designed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Sensation Seeking Scale – Form V (SSS-V) for the Italian-speaking population. The instrument was administered to 1,530 high school and college students. A second group of 268 high school students completed the SSS-V and the Impulsiveness Questionnaire (IVE). Exploratory factor analysis highlighted a 2-factor structure, Thrill and Adventure Seeking (TAS) and Disinhibition (Dis). Confirmatory factor analysis revealed an adequate model fit. Internal consistency of the subscales was marginally supported using the alpha reliability measure. Convergent validity was supported by significant positive correlations between Venturesomeness IVE subscale and both TAS and Dis. As a proof of discriminant validity, Impulsiveness was found to be not related to TAS and lowly correlated to Dis. Our results corroborated the outcomes of many previous studies suggesting the need to test the SSS-V degree of factor invariance and factor structure stability. Further analyses involving independent samples are required to confirm the present findings.
Highlights
Zuckerman (1979) defined sensation seeking as a biosocial personality trait characterized by “the need for varied, novel, and complex sensations and experiences, and the willingness to take physical and social risks for the sake of such experiences” (p. 10)
Item Analysis Based on the item analysis conducted on group 1, fourteen items were dropped from the original version of the instrument: items 10, 18, 19 and 37 from the subscale Experience Seeking; items 11, 17 and 38 from the subscale Thrill and Adventure Seeking; items 30 and 36 from the subscale Disinhibition; and items 2, 5, 7, 31 and 34 from the subscale Boredom Susceptibility
This study was firstly designed to evaluate the dimensionality of the Sensation Seeking Scale – Form V (SSS-V) in a large sample of Italian adolescents by combining exploratory and confirmatory factor procedures
Summary
Zuckerman (1979) defined sensation seeking as a biosocial personality trait characterized by “the need for varied, novel, and complex sensations and experiences, and the willingness to take physical and social risks for the sake of such experiences” (p. 10). The findings identified the following four factors for the new Form IV (Zuckerman, 1971): Thrill and Adventure Seeking (TAS); Experience Seeking (ES); Disinhibition (Dis); and Boredom Susceptibility (BS). This last factor differed in the case of men and women but was maintained. The general factor was not a satisfactory measure because did not contain any items from the Disinhibition subscale To overcome this limitation, the researchers developed Form V (Zuckerman, Eysenck, & Eysenck, 1978), in which the total sensation seeking score derived from the sum of the ten-item subscales
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