Is the sexual sensation seeking scale a reliable instrument? addressing multiple factor structures in a Colombian sample

ABSTRACT

The sexual sensation seeking scale (SSSS) is a widely used instrument to measure individuals’ tendency to seek an optimal level of sexual arousal and novel sexual experiences. However, psychometric studies have suggested different factor structures for this instrument, which may lead to a biased assessment of the subdimensions of sexual sensation seeking. The present study (N = 812) aimed to identify the best factorial model of the SSSS by comparing the model suggested by previous research. Results from Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analyses showed that none of the models tested have sufficient goodness-of-fit to support the internal validity of the instrument. Thus, this study highlights the limitations of the SSSS in assessing sexual sensation seeking and proposes psychometric alternatives that should be considered by researchers to achieve a reliable measure of sexual sensation seeking.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexual sensation seeking
• Factor structure
• Validity
• Colombian

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors contributions

Duban Romero: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal Analysis, Writing – Original Draft, Writing – Review & Editing. David L. Rodrigues: Conceptualization, Writing – Original Draft, Writing – Review & Editing. Moisés Mebarak: Investigation, Resources, Writing – Review & Editing. Juan C. Tovar: Investigation, Writing – Review & Editing. Anthony Millán: Methodology, Investigation.

Data availability statement

The data described in this article are openly available in the Open Science Framework at https://doi.org/10.1080/19419899.2023.2169192.

Open Scholarship

This article has earned the Center for Open Science badges for Open Data, Open Materials and Preregistered. The data and materials are openly accessible at https://doi.org/10.1080/19419899.2023.2169192.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/19419899.2023.2169192.

Additional information

Funding

Part of this work was funded by a grant awarded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia to DLR [2020.00523.CEECIND].