The Female Sexuality Questionnaire: instrument development

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Human Sexuality
• Sociology

Background:

• Female sexuality is a complex, multidimensional construct.
• Existing measures may not adequately capture the nuances of women's sexual experiences.
• A validated instrument is needed to assess various facets of female sexuality.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate the Female Sexuality Questionnaire (FSQ).
• To identify key domains and items that accurately reflect female sexuality.

Main Methods:

• Survey design utilizing 500 distributed questionnaires to a diverse sample of 262 sexually active women.
• Item generation based on literature and domain-referenced approach, followed by expert review.
• Principal factor analysis (PFA) with quartimax rotation on 41 items from an initial pool of 70.

Main Results:

• The PFA yielded a 5-factor solution: Satisfaction, Physical Responsiveness, Beliefs, Body Image, and Relationships (derived from Intimacy).
• The Reproduction domain was not supported by the analysis.
• Twelve items did not load onto any factor, suggesting areas for refinement.

Conclusions:

• The developed Female Sexuality Questionnaire (FSQ) provides a psychometrically sound measure of female sexuality.
• The FSQ effectively captures key dimensions including satisfaction, physical responsiveness, beliefs, body image, and relationship dynamics.
• Further recommendations for FSQ refinement are based on empirical findings.