Sexual Awareness Questionnaire

Abstract

The Sexual Awareness Questionnaire (SAQ), developed by William E. Snell, Jr., Terri D. Fisher, and Rowland S. Miller in 1991, is an objective, 36-item self-report instrument designed to measure four distinct personality tendencies related to an individual’s orientation toward their own sexuality. These four core dimensions, confirmed through factor analysis, are Sexual Consciousness, Sexual Monitoring, Sexual Assertiveness, and Sex-Appeal Consciousness. The SAQ utilizes a 5-point Likert scale response format and has demonstrated strong internal consistency and evidence of both convergent and discriminant validity across diverse samples of college students.

Keywords

Sexual Awareness Questionnaire, SAQ, sexual consciousness, sexual monitoring, sexual assertiveness, sex-appeal consciousness, psychometrics, sex-guilt, personality, Likert scale.

Authors

William E. Snell, Jr., Terri D. Fisher, Rowland S. Miller

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Sexual Awareness Questionnaire (SAQ) is to provide a standardized, psychometrically sound measure for assessing specific facets of how individuals perceive, reflect upon, and act regarding their own sexuality. Prior to the SAQ, existing measures often focused on specific behaviors or attitudes but lacked a comprehensive framework for understanding the underlying personality tendencies associated with sexual self-awareness and interpersonal sexual dynamics.

The scale was explicitly developed to operationalize and quantify four core psychological dimensions, allowing researchers to explore how these tendencies correlate with various sexual attitudes, dispositions, and behaviors, such as contraceptive use and the history and variety of sexual experiences.

Construct

The SAQ measures four theoretically derived psychological tendencies related to sexual awareness, each functioning as a distinct subscale. These constructs provide a multifaceted view of an individual’s engagement with their sexuality:

• Sexual Consciousness: Defined as the tendency to deeply think and reflect upon the nature, motivations, and changes concerning one’s own sexuality. This dimension reflects cognitive introspection regarding sexual identity.
• Sexual Monitoring: Defined as the tendency to be highly aware and concerned about the public impression that one’s sexuality makes on others. This involves constant self-surveillance regarding perceived sexual image.
• Sexual Assertiveness: Defined as the tendency to be direct, confident, and proactive in expressing desires, needs, and boundaries concerning the sexual aspects of one’s life and relationships. This trait is critical for effective sexual communication.
• Sex-Appeal Consciousness: Defined as the focused awareness of one’s own sex appeal and the ability to perceive immediately whether others find them sexually attractive. This is a specific component related to external validation of sexual desirability.

Validity

Evidence supporting the validity of the SAQ stems from multiple findings demonstrating its theoretically consistent relationships with other key psychological constructs (Snell et al., 1991). The SAQ exhibits strong convergent and discriminant validity.

Specifically, all four SAQ subscales demonstrated a negative relationship with measures of sex-anxiety and sex-guilt for both male and female participants, suggesting that higher sexual awareness tendencies are associated with lower levels of distress regarding sexuality. Furthermore, sexual consciousness was found to be positively related to erotophilic feelings (positive emotional responses to sexual stimuli).

In terms of behavioral outcomes, research showed that sexual assertiveness in both genders was a significant predictor of greater contraceptive use. For males specifically, both sexual consciousness and sexual monitoring predicted more favorable attitudes toward condom use. Across both genders, higher scores on sexual consciousness, sexual monitoring, and sexual assertiveness were positively associated with a broader variety and more extensive history of sexual experiences, confirming the predictive validity of the scale regarding sexual behavior.

Reliability

The internal consistency of the SAQ subscales was assessed using the Cronbach alpha coefficient across two distinct samples (Sample I: N=386; Sample II: N=386) drawn from lower division psychology courses at a midwestern university. The results consistently indicated acceptable to strong levels of internal consistency across all four subscales for both males and females (Snell et al., 1991).

In Sample I, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranged from .80 (sexual monitoring, males) to .92 (sex-appeal consciousness, females). In Sample II, the coefficients remained robust, ranging from .80 (sexual assertiveness, males) to .92 (sex-appeal consciousness, both males and females). These high reliability scores demonstrate that the items within each subscale consistently measure the intended underlying construct.

Factor Analysis

To confirm the hypothesized four-dimensional structure of the SAQ, the 36 items were subjected to a principal axis factor analysis utilizing varimax rotation. This analysis successfully identified and interpreted four distinct factors, which collectively accounted for 42% of the total variance in the item responses.

The factor loadings confirmed the anticipated subscale structure: Factor 1 corresponded to Sexual Consciousness (Items 1, 4, 10, 13, 22, 25); Factor 2 aligned with Sexual Monitoring tendencies (Items 2, 5, 14, 17, 23, 26, 28, 31, 32); Factor 3 defined Sexual Assertiveness (Items 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 24); and Factor 4 represented Sex-Appeal Consciousness (Items 8, 11, 29). A subsequent cross-validation factor analysis further corroborated these findings, providing strong empirical support for the four-factor model underlying the SAQ.

Instrument

Test Type: Objective, Self-Report Personality Questionnaire

Format: 36 items utilizing a 5-point Likert scale.

Language Available: English (Original development language)

Population Group: Adults (primarily studied in college populations)

Age Group: 17 to 60 years old (Mean age approximately 24.1 in initial samples)

Population Details: Initial validation samples consisted of 772 participants (combined N of two samples), drawn from lower division psychology courses at a small midwestern university, including both male and female respondents.

Test Methodology: Respondents typically mark answers on machine-scorable answer sheets. Completion time usually ranges between 15 and 30 minutes.

Scoring Details: Scoring involves summing the relevant items for each subscale. Scores A through E are typically coded 0 to 4 (or 4 to 0 for reverse-coded items). Six items (23, 31, 32, 30, 6, and 9) are reverse-coded (R). Higher scores indicate a greater amount of the respective psychological tendency. Subscale score ranges are: Sexual Consciousness (0–24), Sexual Monitoring (0–32), Sexual Assertiveness (0–36), and Sex-Appeal Consciousness (0–12).

Keywords

Sexual identity, psychosexual development, self-perception, intimacy, sexual communication, internal consistency, factor structure, psychometric scale.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: N/A (Not provided in source material)

Affiliation Email addresses: [email protected] (William E. Snell, Jr.)

Correspondence Address: William E. Snell, Jr., Department of Psychology, Southeast Missouri State University, One University Plaza, Cape Girardeau, MO 63701

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: 1991

Permissions and Fees: Information regarding current permissions and fees is not provided in the original source material. Researchers should contact the corresponding author, William E. Snell, Jr., for current usage permissions.

Reference’s

Snell, W. E., Jr., Fisher, T. D., & Miller, R. S. (1991). Development of the Sexual Awareness Questionnaire: Components, reliability, and validity. Annals of Sex Research, 4, 65–92.

Snell, W. E., Jr. (1994, April). Sexual awareness: Contraception, sexual behaviors and sexual attitudes. Paper presented at the 63rd annual meeting of the Southwestern Psychological Association, Tulsa, OK.

Items of the Sexual Awareness Questionnaire

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

Instructions: The items listed below refer to the sexual aspects of people’s lives. Please read each item carefully and decide to what extent it is characteristic of you. Give each item a rating of how much it applies to you by using the following scale:

A = Not at all characteristic of me.

B = Slightly characteristic of me.

C = Somewhat characteristic of me.

D = Moderately characteristic of me.

E = Very characteristic of me.

1. I am very aware of my sexual feelings.
2. I wonder whether others think I’m sexy.
3. I’m assertive about the sexual aspects of my life.
4. I’m very aware of my sexual motivations.
5. I’m concerned about the sexual appearance of my body.
6. I’m not very direct about voicing my sexual desires. (R)
7. I’m always trying to understand my sexual feelings.
8. I know immediately when others consider me sexy.
9. I am somewhat passive about expressing my sexual desires. (R)
10. I’m very alert to changes in my sexual desires.
11. I am quick to sense whether others think I’m sexy.
12. I do not hesitate to ask for what I want in a sexual relationship.
13. I am very aware of my sexual tendencies.
14. I usually worry about making a good sexual impression on others.
15. I’m the type of person who insists on having my sexual needs met.
16. I think about my sexual motivations more than most people do.
17. I’m concerned about what other people think of my sex appeal.
18. When it comes to sex, I usually ask for what I want.
19. I reflect about my sexual desires a lot.
20. I never seem to know when I’m turning others on.
21. If I were sexually interested in someone, I’d let that person know.
22. I’m very aware of the way my mind works when I’m sexually aroused.
23. I rarely think about my sex appeal. (R)
24. If I were to have sex with someone, I’d tell my partner what I like.
25. I know what turns me on sexually.
26. I don’t care what others think of my sexuality.
27. I don’t let others tell me how to run my sex life.
28. I rarely think about the sexual aspects of my life.
29. I know when others think I’m sexy.
30. If I were to have sex with someone, I’d let my partner take the initiative. (R)
31. I don’t think about my sexuality very much. (R)
32. Other people’s opinions of my sexuality don’t matter very much to me. (R)
33. I would ask about sexually-transmitted diseases before having sex with someone.
34. I don’t consider myself a very sexual person.
35. When I’m with others, I want to look sexy.
36. If I wanted to practice “safe sex” with someone, I would insist on doing so.