The short version of the Sexual Distress Scale (SDS-3): Measurement invariance across countries, gender identities, and sexual orientations

Lin, Chung-Ying, Tsai, Meng-Che, Koós, Mónika, Nagy, Léna, Kraus, Shane W., Demetrovics, Zsolt, Potenza, Marc N., Ballester-Arnal, Rafael, Batthyány, Dominik, Bergeron, Sophie, Billieux, Joël, Briken, Peer, Cárdenas-López, Georgina, Carvalho, Joana, Castro-Calvo, Jesúa, Chen, Lijua, Ciocca, Giacomo, Corazza, Ornella, Csako, Rita I., Fernandez, David P., Fernandez, Elaine F., Fujiwara, Hironobu, Fuss, Johannes, Gabrhelík, Roman, Gewirtz-Meydan, Ateret, Gjoneska, Biljana, Gola, Mateusz, Grubbs, Joshua B., Hashim, Hashim T., Islam, Md. Saiful, Ismail, Mustafa, Jiménez-Martínez, Martha, Jurin, Tanja, Kalina, Ondrej, Klein, Verena, Költő, András, Lee, Sang-Kyu, Lewczuk, Karol, Lochner, Christine, López-Alvarado, Silvia, Lukavská, Kateřina, Mayta-Tristán, Percy, Milea, Ion, Miller, Dan J., Orosová, Oľga, Orosz, Gábor, Ponce, Fernando P., Quintana, Gonzalo R., Garzola, Gabriel C. Quintero, Ramos-Diaz, Jano, Rigaud, Kévin, Rousseau, Ann, Scanavino, Marco De Tubino, Schulmeyer, Marion K., Sharan, Pratap, Shibata, Mami, Shoib, Sheikh, Sigre-Leirós, Vera, Sniewski, Luke, Spasovski, Ognen, Steibliene, Vesta, Stein, Dan J., Strizek, Julian, Štulhofer, Aleksandar, Ünsal, Berk C., Vaillancourt-Morel, Marie-Pier, Van Hout, Marie Claire, and Bőthe, Beáta (2024) The short version of the Sexual Distress Scale (SDS-3): Measurement invariance across countries, gender identities, and sexual orientations. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 24 (2). 100461.

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Abstract

Background: The three-item Sexual Distress Scale (SDS-3) has been frequently used to assess distress related to sexuality in public health surveys and research on sexual wellbeing. However, its psychometric properties and measurement invariance across cultural, gender and sexual subgroups have not yet been examined. This multinational study aimed to validate the SDS-3 and test its psychometric properties, including measurement invariance across language, country, gender identity, and sexual orientation groups.

Methods: We used global survey data from 82,243 individuals (Mean age=32.39 years; 40.3 % men, 57.0 % women, 2.8 % non-binary, and 0.6 % other genders) participating in the International Sexual Survey (ISS; https://internationalsexsurvey.org/) across 42 countries and 26 languages. Participants completed the SDS-3, as well as questions regarding sociodemographic characteristics, including gender identity and sexual orientation.

Results: Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supported a unidimensional factor structure for the SDS-3, and multi-group CFA (MGCFA) suggested that this factor structure was invariant across countries, languages, gender identities, and sexual orientations. Cronbach's α for the unidimensional score was 0.83 (range between 0.76 and 0.89), and McDonald's ω was 0.84 (range between 0.76 and 0.90). Participants who did not experience sexual problems had significantly lower SDS-3 total scores (M = 2.99; SD=2.54) compared to those who reported sexual problems (M = 5.60; SD=3.00), with a large effect size (Cohen's d = 1.01 [95 % CI=-1.03, -0.98]; p < 0.001).

Conclusion: The SDS-3 has a unidimensional factor structure and appears to be valid and reliable for measuring sexual distress among individuals from different countries, gender identities, and sexual orientations.

Item ID: 83040
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 2174-0852
Keywords: confirmatory factor analysis; sexual distress; psychometric analysis; international sex survey
Copyright Information: © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/4.0/).
Date Deposited: 02 Jul 2024 01:50
FoR Codes: 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5203 Clinical and health psychology > 520302 Clinical psychology @ 50%
52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5201 Applied and developmental psychology > 520108 Testing, assessment and psychometrics @ 50%
SEO Codes: 28 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 2801 Expanding knowledge > 280121 Expanding knowledge in psychology @ 100%
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