Sociosexual Orientation Index (Bendixen et al., 2024)

Beliefs about sexual and parasexual behaviours in adolescents; 5 Items, Ages 13-16

Populations: Adolescents
Age ranges: 13-16
Languages: English
Countries: Germany; Norway

Items

Item Stem:

“If there is a person you are not in a relationship with or in love with, how OK is it for you to…”

French/Deep Kissing
Intimate Touching
To be naked in bed with another person
To have oral sex
To have sexual intercourse

Responses

Items used a 5 point Likert-type scale, 1 = Never OK, 2 = Hardly ever OK, 3 = Sometimes OK, 4 = Most often OK, 5 = Always OK

Scoring

Not Reported

Citations

Bendixen, M., Kessler, A. M., Doebell, A., Rynning, C. M. W., Sætersdal, A., & Kennair, L. E. O. (2024). Young adolescent boys’ and girls’ attitudes toward uncommitted sexual behaviors and the perception of interest in sexual exploration in opposite-gender relations. Acta Psychologica, 249, 104479. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104479

Team comments
Construct validity for this measure was evaluated with both the 5 item and a 4 item version. The 4 item version excluded “French/Deep Kissing”. While both versions reached our threshold for construct validity, the 4 item version did demonstrate notably higher validity arguments, please see Bendixen et al., 2024 for further information.

Scoring breakdown

Measure development

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

Validity

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

Reliability

Green: 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