Focusing the Conceptualization of Erotophilia and Erotophobia on Global Attitudes Toward Sex: Development and Validation of the Sex Positivity-Negativity Scale.

Previous measures of erotophobia/erotophilia like the Sexual Opinion Survey (SOS) assessed gut-level positive-negative affective and evaluative reactions to a wide range of sexual stimuli, resulting in purposefully diverse item content. Although an effective strategy, the item content of existing erotophilia/erotophobia scales is now potentially too generalized, encompassing what have since developed as an array of more focused constructs in the current literature like attitudes toward (1) casual sex, (2) pornography, (3) non-heterosexual orientations (e.g., homophobia), and (4) masturbation. The current study therefore sought to evaluate existing scales and to develop a conceptually focused measure of sex-positivity and sex-negativity using a distinct strategy designed to obviate the need for overly generalized (and potentially imbalanced or confounding) item content. Using responses from 2205 online respondents (82% Caucasian, 66% heterosexual, and 50% female) completing an item pool of 158 items, the current study employed a combination of classic test-theory analyses (e.g., exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses) and item response theory analyses to develop a psychometrically optimized scale-the Sex Positivity-Negativity (SPN) scale. The SPN scale demonstrated: (1) a stable 2-subscale structure distinguishing sex-negativity from sex-positivity, (2) consistently high levels of internal consistency across 31 demographic subsamples, (3) more discriminant than convergent validity with existing erotophilia scales given its novel focus, (4) discriminant validity with more specific sexual attitudes, (5) greater levels of power and precision for detecting differences between individuals, (6) stronger links to individual, sexual, and relationship functioning than existing scales, and (7) incremental validity over the SOS for predicting change in relationship dynamics over 6 months. The findings therefore suggested that the SPN scale is a conceptually focused measure of sex-positivity and sex-negativity offering researchers a comparatively short and effective tool. Implications are discussed.