THE MEASUREMENT OF SEXUAL-ESTEEM - INVESTIGATION OF SNELL AND PAPINI (1989) SEXUALITY SCALE

The Sexuality Scale (SS) was published as a measure of the constructs sexual-esteem, sexual-depression, and sexual-preoccupation. These constructs may prove to be important and useful ones in the study of sexual behaviors, cognitions, and attitudes. However, relatively little work has been done with the SS and further exploration of the scale was the objective of the present study. Data were collected from 108 male and 127 female undergraduates. Confirmatory factor analysis using LISREL 7 demonstrated that the intended factoral model of the SS provided an inadequate fit with the data. A reliable short form of the SS was proposed that provides a better fit between a three-factor model and the data. Men scored higher than did women on the sexual-esteem and sexual-preoccupation scales of both the original SS and the newly created short form. Both the SS and the short form were only moderately correlated with measures of global self-esteem and clinical depression. Implications for future research on the measurement of sexual-esteem are discussed. © 1993 Academic Press, Inc.