Postponing Sexual Initiation Scale (Kahn et al., 2004)

• Populations: Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults who have not had sexual intercourse
• Age ranges: 11-19
• Languages: English
• Countries: United States

Items

Items taken from a data reporting table, and may not accurately represent precise wording in measure presentation:

• Don’t want to get pregnant
• Don’t want STD
• Not ready for sex
• Mother/father against
• Don’t want to get bad reputation
• Against my beliefs to have sex before marriage
• Have not met the right person
• Doctor/nurse against
• Friends not having sex
• Partner doesn’t want to have sex
• No one has asked
• Don’t know how to get birth control

Responses

Items used a 3 point Likert-type scale, 0 “not at all important” or “does not apply to me,” 1 “somewhat important,” 2 “very important”

Scoring

“values of individual items were summed for a total scale score, which could range from 0 to 24.” (Kahn et al., 2004)

Citations

Kahn, J. A., Huang, B., Austin, S. B., Aweh, G. N., Colditz, G. A., & Frazier, A. L. (2004). Development of a scale to measure adolescents’ beliefs and attitudes about postponing sexual initiation. Journal of Adolescent Health, 35(5), 425.e1-425.10. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1054-139X(04)00075-8