Shortening the Sexual Experiences Survey-Victimization (SES-V) by Combining Sexual Behaviors.

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Sociology
• Public Health

Background:

• The Sexual Experiences Survey (SES) is a key tool for assessing sexual victimization.
• The latest version, SES-V (2024), is longer, raising concerns about participant burden.
• Previous research has not evaluated the impact of SES length on its effectiveness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether shortening the SES-V impacts reported prevalence rates of sexual victimization.
• To determine if combining sexual behavior items affects the accuracy of victimization measures.
• To assess the relationship between questionnaire length and survey fatigue.

Main Methods:

• 351 college women completed an anonymous online questionnaire.
• Participants were randomly assigned to either the standard SES-V (120 items) or a shortened version (60 items) with combined sexual behavior items.
• Prevalence rates, types of sexual behaviors, and survey duration were analyzed.

Main Results:

• No statistically significant differences in overall sexual victimization prevalence were found between the standard (56.1%) and shortened (61.0%) versions.
• Similar non-significant results were observed for specific sexual behavior categories (non-penetrative, penetrative, made-to-penetrate).
• No significant differences in survey fatigue indicators, including duration, were detected.

Conclusions:

• Combining sexual behavior items is an effective strategy to shorten the SES-V.
• This brevity can be achieved with minimal impact on reported prevalence rates of sexual victimization.
• The findings suggest that a condensed SES-V can maintain measurement integrity while potentially reducing participant burden.