The Brief Attitudes Toward Solo Masturbation Scale: Development and Preliminary Validation

Solo masturbation is a common behavior that is associated with both positive and negative outcomes. We suggest that individuals' attitudes toward masturbation might shed light on these conflicting findings; however, existing measures of masturbation attitudes are very long and have suboptimal psychometric qualities. In this study, 1531 adults (40% women, 54% men, 6% gender non-binary/non-conforming; 18-81 years old) responded to items reflecting attitudes toward masturbation. Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, we developed an eight-item Brief Attitudes Toward Solo Masturbation Scale (BATSMS) that has positive and negative subscales. Associations with related constructs (e.g., the most widely used existing measure of masturbation attitudes, pleasure during and frequency of masturbation, erotophilia, erotophobia, religiosity) provide preliminary evidence of validity. The merit of an ultra-brief two-item version of the BATSMS and recommendations for future investigations of masturbation attitudes are discussed.