Sexual Self-Concept Inventory

Abstract

The Sexual Self-Concept Inventory (SSCI) is a comprehensive, 34-item psychological instrument designed to assess the gender-specific sexual self-concepts of early adolescent girls (typically 12–14 years of age). Developed through extensive qualitative and quantitative formative work with ethnically diverse, urban samples, the SSCI identifies three distinct and reliable dimensions of sexual self-concept. These core dimensions are Sexual Arousability, Sexual Agency, and Negative Sexual Affect.

The measure utilizes a 6-point Likert-type scale for responses and is quick to administer, taking approximately four minutes. The development process emphasized item comprehension and authenticity by generating the item pool directly from transcripts of girls’ interviews and focus groups. Factor analytic procedures confirmed the distinct nature of the three subscales, establishing the SSCI as a reliable tool for researchers studying sexual development in early adolescence.

Keywords

Sexual Self-Concept Inventory, SSCI, early adolescence, sexual self-concept, Sexual Arousability, Sexual Agency, Negative Sexual Affect, sexual development, psychometrics, girls.

Authors

Lucia F. O’Sullivan, Heino F. L. Meyer-Bahlburg, Ian McKeague

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Sexual Self-Concept Inventory (SSCI) is to quantitatively measure the multifaceted, gender-specific ways in which early adolescent girls perceive themselves in relation to sexuality. It was specifically created to address the gap in measures suitable for this younger age group, focusing on their unique experiences and language.

By assessing three distinct dimensions—Arousability, Agency, and Negative Affect—the SSCI provides researchers and clinicians with a nuanced understanding of a girl’s developing sexual identity, including her responsiveness to sexual stimuli, her sense of control and curiosity, and her feelings of anxiety or concern related to sexuality.

Construct

The Sexual Self-Concept Inventory measures the psychological construct of Sexual Self-Concept, operationalized into three core, empirically distinct dimensions:

• Sexual Arousability: This dimension (17 items) reflects an individual’s sense of sexual responsiveness and excitement, encompassing items related to physical reaction, flirting, and enjoyment of sexualized attention.
• Sexual Agency: This dimension (10 items) captures aspects of sexual curiosity, self-determination, and the girl’s perceived ability to make independent choices regarding sexual behavior, reflecting an active rather than passive sexual role.
• Negative Sexual Affect: This dimension (7 items) assesses feelings of anxiety, shame, and concern related to sexuality, including worries about sexual monitoring, social judgment, and emotional vulnerability associated with sexual activity.

The development of these constructs was grounded in formative qualitative research, ensuring the content is authentic and relevant to the target population of ethnically diverse, urban, early adolescent girls.

Validity

The construct validity of the SSCI was extensively evaluated through correlation analyses with established measures of related psychological constructs, using a sample of 180 girls.

Convergent Validity: As hypothesized, both Sexual Arousability and Sexual Agency correlated positively and significantly with measures of sexual self-esteem (rs = .37 and .43, ps < .001). Conversely, Negative Sexual Affect correlated negatively with sexual self-esteem (r = −.18, p < .05). Furthermore, Negative Sexual Affect was positively correlated with abstinence attitudes (r = .43, p < .001), while Sexual Arousability and Sexual Agency were negatively correlated with abstinence attitudes (rs = −.44 and −.22, p < .001), demonstrating that positive self-concepts align with less abstinent attitudes, and negative affect aligns with abstinent attitudes.

Discriminant Validity: To establish discriminant validity, SSCI scores were correlated with parenting attitudes, based on the assumption that early adolescent girls often separate sexual experiences from reproductive outcomes. As predicted, none of the three SSCI scales were significantly correlated with parenting attitudes (ps > .05). Additional analyses showed that higher Sexual Arousability and Sexual Agency were associated with perceived approval from mothers and peers regarding sexual activity, and higher perceived sexual experience among friends, further supporting the scale’s ability to discriminate between sexual self-concept and non-sexual relationship constructs.

Reliability

The reliability of the SSCI scales was assessed using both internal consistency and test-retest stability measures.

Internal Consistency: The internal consistency, measured by Coefficient alphas, demonstrated good to very good reliability across the three scales: Sexual Arousability ($alpha$ = .91), Sexual Agency ($alpha$ = .76), and Negative Sexual Affect ($alpha$ = .67). According to established psychometric standards (DeVellis, 1991), these coefficients are considered acceptable or strong.

Test-Retest Reliability: Stability over time was assessed in two separate studies. A short-term retest (3 weeks, N=50) showed substantial coefficients: r = .68 (Sexual Arousability), r = .69 (Sexual Agency), and r = .67 (Negative Sexual Affect), all statistically significant (p < .001). A longer-term stability study (1 year, N=162) also indicated stability in scores: r = .59 (Sexual Arousability), r = .84 (Sexual Agency), and r = .69 (Negative Sexual Affect), confirming the enduring nature of the measured constructs during this developmental period.

Factor Analysis

The factor structure of the Sexual Self-Concept Inventory was determined using Principal components analytic procedures. This analysis was crucial for identifying the underlying dimensions of the item pool, which was initially generated using authentic language sourced from interviews and focus groups with the target population.

The results of the factor analysis confirmed the emergence of three distinct factors, corresponding precisely to the intended dimensions: Sexual Arousability, Sexual Agency, and Negative Sexual Affect. The clear factor structure supports the theoretical framework and the scoring methodology, which treats these three scales as separate, yet related, components of the overall sexual self-concept construct.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report psychometric inventory

Format: 34 items administered via questionnaire

Language Available: English (Original development language)

Population Group: Early adolescent girls

Age Group: 12–14 years of age

Population Details: Ethnically diverse, urban samples of early adolescent girls.

Test Methodology: 6-point Likert-type scale (1=Strongly Disagree to 6=Strongly Agree). Scoring involves summing item scores for each of the three respective scales. Administration time is approximately 4 minutes.

Keywords

Psychological scale, Sexual Arousability, Sexual Agency, Negative Sexual Affect, sexual self-esteem, abstinence attitudes, self-efficacy, psychometrics, construct validity.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Information not provided in source.

Affiliation Email addresses: Information not provided in source.

Correspondence Address: Lucia F. O’Sullivan (University of New Brunswick); Heino F. L. Meyer-Bahlburg (New York State Psychiatric Institute); Ian McKeague (Columbia University).

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The scale was developed and published in 2006. Permissions and fee requirements should be directed to the corresponding author, Lucia F. O’Sullivan, or the publisher of the journal Psychology of Women Quarterly (O’Sullivan, Meyer-Bahlburg, & McKeague, 2006).

The foundational details of the measure are published in: O’Sullivan, L. F., Meyer-Bahlburg, H. F. L., & McKeague, I. W. (2006). The development of the Sexual Self-Concept Inventory for early adolescent girls. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 30, 139–149.

Reference’s

• DeVellis, R. F. (1991). Scale development: Theory and applications. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

• Miller, B. C., Norton, M. C., Fan, X., & Christopherson, C. R. (1998). Pubertal development, parental communication, and sexual values in relation to adolescent sexual behaviors. Journal of Early Adolescence, 18, 27–52.

• O’Sullivan, L. F., & Meyer-Bahlburg, H. F. L. (2003). African-American and Latina inner-city girls’ reports of romantic and sexual development. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 20, 221–238.

• O’Sullivan, L. F., Meyer-Bahlburg, H. F. L., & McKeague, I. W. (2006). The development of the Sexual Self-Concept Inventory for early adolescent girls. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 30, 139–149.

• Paikoff, R. L. (1995). Early heterosexual debut: Situations of sexual possibility during the transition to adolescence. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 65, 389–401.

• Rosenthal, D., Moore, S., & Flynn, I. (1991). Adolescent self-efficacy, self-esteem and sexual risk-taking. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 1, 77–88.

• Treboux, D., & Busch-Rossnagel, N. A. (1990). Social network influences on adolescent sexual attitudes and behavior. Journal of Adolescent Research, 5, 175–189.

• Unger, J. B., Molina, G. B., & Teran, L. (2000). Perceived consequences of teenage childbearing among adolescent girls in an urban sample. Journal of Adolescent Health, 26, 205–212.

Items of the Sexual Self-Concept Inventory

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

The questions below are about your views about yourself and other people your age. Please read each statement carefully and then rate each statement according to how much you agree with it using a number from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 6 (Strongly Agree). An answer is correct to the extent it truly reflects how much you agree with it.

(SEXUAL AROUSABILITY)

1. I sometimes think I’d like to try doing the sexual things my friends are doing with their boyfriends.

2. When I kiss a guy, I get hot.

3. I would really want to touch a boyfriend if we were left alone together.

4. I sometimes want to know how different types of sex feel.

5. If I’m going to see a guy I like, I like to dress sexy.

6. If a guy kisses me, I also want him to touch my body.

7. When I flirt with a guy, I like to feel him up.

8. Sometimes I dress sexy to get attention from guys.

9. If I were to kiss a guy, I’d get really turned on.

10. There are things about sex I want to try.

11. If a boy kisses me, my body feels good.

12. I enjoy talking about sex or talking sexy with boys I know really well.

13. If I were kissing and touching a guy, I would get hyped, real excited.

14. I enjoy talking about sex with my girl friends.

15. It’s okay to feel up on a guy.

16. I like it when a guy tells me I look good.

17. I think I’m ready to have sex.

(SEXUAL AGENCY)

1. Girls always wonder what sex is going to be like the first time.

2. I sometimes think about who I would want to have sex with.

3. When I decide to have sex with a guy, it will be because I wanted to have sex and not because he really wanted me to have sex with him.

4. Girls sometimes have sex because they’re curious and want to see what it’s like.

5. Sex is best with a guy you love.

6. I like to let a guy know when I like him.

7. If I have sex, my friends will want to know all about it.

8. If I had sex with a guy, I would be running the risk of being played (taken advantage of).

9. Flirting is fun and I am good at it.

10. If I have sex with a guy, I would worry that I could get my feelings really hurt.

(NEGATIVE SEXUAL AFFECT)

1. If I kiss a guy I don’t really know, I’m afraid of what people will think about me.

2. Sex is nasty.

3. Sex isn’t fun for girls my age.

4. I would be scared to be really alone with a boyfriend.

5. Some girls have sex just to be accepted or popular.

6. I think I am too young to have sex.

7. If I have sex, my friends will want to know all about it.