Sexual Self-Concept Items (Breakwell & Millward, 1997)

Importance of sex in self image and the relationship of some risk taking behaviours with sexual activity in adolescents and young adults; 14 Items, Ages 16-19

Populations: Adolescents, Young Adults
Age ranges: 16-19
Languages: English
Countries: United Kingdom

Items

Subscales

Males:

SocioEmotional Sexuality
Relationship Sexuality

Females:

Sexual Assertiveness

Items were not reported as used, the following descriptors were used to describe individual items:

Romantic
Passive
Responsibility for contraception
Likely to exploit
Keen to experiment
Ignorant about eroticism
Faithful
Pretend to enjoy sex
In control when sex happens
Passionate
Unwilling to have sex before marriage
Likely to seduce
Interested in sex
Sensitive to partner’s sexual needs

Responses

Items used a 5 point Likert-type scale, 1 = “strongly agree”, 5 = “strongly disagree”

Scoring

Not Reported

Citations

Breakwell, G. M., & Millward, L. J. (1997). Sexual self-concept and sexual risk-taking. Journal of Adolescence (London, England.), 20(1), 29-41. https://doi.org/10.1006/jado.1996.0062

Team comments
Please note that in the case of Convergent validity, the “Males” and “Relationshiop Sexuality” measures did show correlations, but these were weak and did not meet our significance threshold. However, the “Females” subscale achieved this threshold.

Scoring breakdown

Measure development

Significant design input from young people
Cognitive interviews with young people
Expert input

Validity

Unknown: Face validity
Green: Convergent validity
Green: Construct validity

Reliability

Red: Internal consistency
Unknown: Test-retest

Ease of use

Unknown: Readability

Definitions

Face validity: How well a measure appears to represent the construct it is supposed to be measuring.

Convergent validity: How well a measure correlates with other hypothetically-related measures.

Construct validity: The extent to which a measure reflects the construct it was designed to evaluate.

Internal consistency: The extent to which items in a scale capture aspects of the same construct.

Test-retest: The degree to which measurement scores are consistent over a short period of time (usually 2 weeks).

Readability: The ease with which a reader can understand the questionnaire items.

Key

Green: Meets validation criteria
Red: Does not meet validation criteria
Unknown: Evidence not available