Development of the Sexual Awareness Questionnaire: Components, reliability, and validity

Two separate investigations were conducted to develop an objective self-report instrument, the Sexual Awareness Questionnaire (SAQ), designed to measure four personality tendencies associated with sexual awareness and sexual assertiveness: sexual-consciousness (attention to internal private sexual cues), sexual-monitoring (sensitivity to others' evaluation of one's sexuality), sexual-assertiveness (self-reliance in sexual decision making), and sex appeal-consciousness (awareness of one's own public sexiness). Factor and reliability analyses from both studies confirmed the factorial validity and reliability of the Sexual Awareness Questionnaire. Other results provided evidence supporting the convergent and discriminant validity of the SAQ. All four SAQ subscales tended to be negatively related to measures of sex-anxiety and sex-guilt for both males and females, and sexual-consciousness was directly related to erotophilic feelings. Other findings indicated that men's and women's responses to the four SAQ subscales were related in a predictable fashion to their sexual attitudes, dispositions, and behaviors. Research and clinical applications are discussed.