Abstract
The Multidimensional Sexual Self-Concept Questionnaire (MSSCQ) is a comprehensive, 100-item psychometric self-report instrument developed by William E. Snell, Jr. (1997, 1998) to assess the multifaceted cognitive, affective, behavioral, and interpersonal dimensions of an individual’s sexual self-concept. Grounded in contemporary self-schema theory, social learning theory, and health locus of control paradigms, the MSSCQ conceptualizes sexuality not as a monolithic drive or simple behavioral frequency, but as a sophisticated internal psychological architecture. The instrument encompasses 20 discrete subscales, each measured via five items: sexual-anxiety, sexual self-efficacy, sexual-consciousness, motivation to avoid risky sex, chance/luck sexual control, sexual-preoccupation, sexual-assertiveness, sexual-optimism, sexual problem self-blame, sexual-monitoring, sexual-motivation, sexual problem management, sexual-esteem, sexual-satisfaction, power-other sexual control, sexual self-schemata, fear-of-sex, sexual problem prevention, sexual-depression, and internal-sexual-control. Respondents rate statements on a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from A (“Not at all characteristic of me”) to E (“Very characteristic of me”), followed by a contextualizing referent item regarding their relational frame of reference (current, past, or imagined sexual relationship). Extensive psychometric investigations demonstrate high internal consistency across subscales (with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients routinely falling between .70 and .92), satisfactory test-retest temporal stability, and robust construct, convergent, and discriminant validity. The MSSCQ serves as an indispensable tool in clinical sexology, relationship counseling, sexual health psychology, and empirical research exploring high-risk sexual behaviors, sexual dysfunction, contraceptive adherence, and gender-differentiated psychosexual development.
Keywords
Multidimensional Sexual Self-Concept Questionnaire, MSSCQ, sexual self-concept, sexual self-efficacy, sexual assertiveness, sexual health locus of control, sexual esteem, psychometrics, sexology, sexual risk behavior
Authors
The Multidimensional Sexual Self-Concept Questionnaire was formulated and validated by William E. Snell, Jr., Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Southeast Missouri State University (Cape Girardeau, Missouri, United States). Dr. Snell has conducted foundational work in clinical, social, and personality psychology, specializing in the development of multidimensional measurement inventories addressing human sexuality, gender roles, health-related behaviors, and close relationship dynamics. His scholarly portfolio includes pioneering instruments such as the Sexual Awareness Questionnaire (SAQ), the Sexual Aspects of Childhood Experience Questionnaire, and the Health Orientation Scale.
Purpose
The primary clinical and empirical objective of the MSSCQ is to provide an exhaustive, standardized operationalization of an individual’s subjective evaluation, perceived agency, emotional reactivity, and motivational drives regarding their sexuality. Historically, psychosexual research often collapsed sexual functioning into either physiological performance criteria (e.g., erectile capacity, frequency of orgasm, lubrication) or simplistic composite scores of sexual permissiveness or satisfaction. Such approaches failed to capture the cognitive mediators—such as perceived self-efficacy, internal versus external attributions of sexual agency, fear of intimacy, and chronic rumination—that directly govern sexual well-being and health-compromising behaviors.
Clinically, the MSSCQ functions as a diagnostic and therapeutic mapping mechanism. It allows sex therapists, clinical psychologists, and marital counselors to disaggregate complex presentations of sexual discord or dysfunction. For example, a client presenting with hypoactive sexual desire may score low on sexual-motivation while simultaneously demonstrating elevated sexual-anxiety and high power-other sexual control. Such a psychometric profile indicates that the presenting symptom is rooted in interpersonal subjugation and performance apprehension rather than an organic absence of sexual consciousness. Conversely, in behavioral medicine and public health contexts, the MSSCQ assesses critical precursors to sexually transmitted infection (STI) transmission and unintended pregnancy by measuring motivation to avoid risky sex, sexual-assertiveness, and chance/luck sexual control.
In academic research, the MSSCQ allows investigators to test intricate structural equation models examining how developmental trajectories, childhood socialization, trauma, and societal gender role expectations shape an individual’s internal working model of sexuality across the lifespan. The scale’s design allows it to be administered to sexually active individuals as well as celibate or sexually inexperienced populations through its contextual referent index (Item 101), ensuring broad demographic and epidemiological applicability.
Psychological Construct
The overarching construct measured by the MSSCQ is the sexual self-concept: an individual’s cognitive, affective, and motivational self-evaluation regarding their own sexual feelings, beliefs, capacities, and behaviors. Rather than viewing this construct as unidimensional, Snell conceptualized it across 20 distinct, interrelated domains:
- Sexual-Anxiety: The chronic tendency to experience apprehension, tension, and nervous arousal when contemplating the sexual aspects of one’s life.
- Sexual Self-Efficacy: The perceived competence, mastery, and capability to successfully manage, fulfill, and negotiate one’s own sexual needs and desires (drawing directly on Bandura’s self-efficacy paradigm).
- Sexual-Consciousness: The habit of internally reflecting upon, noticing, and remaining introspectively aware of one’s internal sexual feelings, physiological signals, and motivations.
- Motivation to Avoid Risky Sex: The explicit intention and proactive behavioral drive to avoid unsafe sexual encounters, specifically targeting vulnerability to STIs and unprotected intercourse.
- Chance/Luck Sexual Control: An external locus of control orientation reflecting the belief that the sexual aspects of one’s life are predominantly governed by fortune, fate, accidents, or arbitrary circumstances.
- Sexual-Preoccupation: The tendency to exhibit obsessive thinking or cognitive absorption regarding sex, wherein sexual ideation dominates conscious awareness.
- Sexual-Assertiveness: The directness and willingness to overtly communicate, negotiate, and assert one’s sexual preferences, boundaries, and desires to a partner.
- Sexual-Optimism: The forward-looking cognitive expectancy that one’s future sexual experiences, relationships, and development will be emotionally gratifying, healthy, and positive.
- Sexual Problem Self-Blame: The attributional tendency to hold oneself entirely responsible, guilty, and blameworthy whenever sexual dysfunctions or relational sexual problems arise.
- Sexual-Monitoring: The public self-consciousness dimension involving acute awareness of, and concern regarding, how one’s sexuality, attitudes, and behaviors are perceived and evaluated by outside observers.
- Sexual-Motivation: The active commitment, prioritization, and expenditure of behavioral time and energetic effort toward engaging in sexual activity.
- Sexual Problem Management: The perceived personal control, agency, and proactive capability to remediate, cope with, or rehabilitate sexual difficulties if they emerge.
- Sexual-Esteem: A generalized affective self-appraisal reflecting pride, self-worth, and positive self-regard concerning the way one handles and experiences one’s sexual tendencies and desires.
- Sexual-Satisfaction: The subjective cognitive-affective evaluation of how completely and comfortably one’s current sexual needs, appetites, and relational conditions are being met.
- Power-Other Sexual Control: An external locus orientation positing that one’s sexual behaviors and outcomes are regulated, dominated, or dictated by powerful external figures (e.g., partners, peer groups, family).
- Sexual Self-Schemata: The cognitive representation of oneself as an exceptionally skilled, capable, and emotionally connective sexual partner, coupled with the profound subjective importance placed on embodying that standard.
- Fear-of-Sex: The emotional avoidance and fearful dread of engaging in physical sexual intimacy or emotional-sexual bonding with another human being.
- Sexual Problem Prevention: The perceived behavioral agency and belief that diligent self-care and anticipatory vigilance can proactively shield oneself from developing sexual dysfunctions or relational problems.
- Sexual-Depression: The chronic experience of dysphoria, sadness, dejection, and emotional disappointment regarding the historical and current quality of one’s sexual life.
- Internal-Sexual-Control: An internal locus of control orientation affirming that one’s sexual destiny, behaviors, outcomes, and life conditions are primarily determined by one’s own conscious actions and self-regulation.
Theoretical Framework
The MSSCQ is grounded in four major theoretical traditions within psychological science:
First, it integrates Self-Schema Theory, pioneered by Hazel Markus and later adapted to sexuality by Andersen and Cyranowski (1994). According to this cognitive framework, individuals construct cognitive generalizations about the self—derived from past experience—that organize and guide the processing of self-relevant social and sexual information. Positive sexual self-schemas foster romantic engagement, communicative competence, and behavioral safety, whereas negative or fragmented schemas heighten anxiety, inhibition, and psychological defense mechanisms.
Second, the instrument directly adapts Julian Rotter’s Locus of Control theory (1966) and Kenneth and Barbara Wallston’s Multidimensional Health Locus of Control (MHLC) model. Rotter postulated that reinforcement expectancies fall along an internal-external continuum. Wallston extended this to health behaviors, distinguishing internal health locus, powerful-others locus, and chance/luck locus. Snell brilliantly mapped this triadic attributional matrix into human sexuality through three specific MSSCQ subscales: internal-sexual-control, power-other sexual control, and chance/luck sexual control. Individuals with an internal locus perceive their sexual health as manageable via personal agency, whereas those elevated on chance or powerful others exhibit elevated vulnerabilities to coercion, unplanned pregnancies, and transmission of STIs.
Third, the scale utilizes Social Cognitive Theory, specifically Albert Bandura’s formulation of perceived self-efficacy. In sexual health, knowledge alone rarely predicts adaptive outcomes; individuals must possess conviction in their capability to execute courses of action (e.g., putting on a condom correctly, refusing unwanted advances, communicating intimacy preferences). The MSSCQ reflects this by bifurcating general efficacy (sexual self-efficacy) from mastery over dysfunction (sexual problem management) and proactive vigilance (sexual problem prevention).
Finally, the scale incorporates Richard Lazarus’s Cognitive Appraisal Theory of Emotion. Sexual experiences are not intrinsically positive or negative; affective outcomes (e.g., sexual-anxiety, sexual-depression, sexual-esteem) depend on whether sexual interactions are appraised as threats, losses, or opportunities for personal growth and relational connection.
Validity
Validation studies for the MSSCQ have demonstrated excellent construct, convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity across diverse clinical, undergraduate, and community samples.
Construct and Factorial Validity: During initial instrument development and cross-validation across independent cohorts totaling more than 1,200 participants, confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses demonstrated that items loaded onto their assigned 20 factors. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supported the 20-dimensional model over competing unidimensional or omnibus three-factor alternatives, yielding satisfactory goodness-of-fit indices (e.g., Comparative Fit Index [CFI] > .90; Root Mean Square Error of Approximation [RMSEA] < .055).
Convergent Validity: The subscales exhibit empirically predictable patterns of association with standardized external measures of personality, mental health, and sexual functioning:
- Sexual-esteem and sexual self-efficacy correlate positively with global self-esteem (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, $r = .35$ to $.48, p < .001$) and relationship satisfaction.
- Sexual-anxiety and sexual-depression demonstrate substantial positive correlations with general measures of trait anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory), generalized depression (Beck Depression Inventory, $r = .38$ to $.52, p < .001$), and sexual distress indices.
- Sexual-assertiveness correlates positively with assertive communication inventories and condom negotiation scales ($r = .42$ to $.56, p < .001$).
- Sexual-monitoring aligns positively with Mark Snyder’s Self-Monitoring Scale and Fenigstein’s Public Self-Consciousness subscale ($r = .40$ to $.51$).
Discriminant Validity: The MSSCQ subscales demonstrate independence from social desirability bias, as evidenced by near-zero correlations with the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (typically $|r| < .15$). Furthermore, internal-sexual-control, chance sexual control, and power-other sexual control show orthogonal or modest negative intercorrelations, validating their status as distinct attributional constructs rather than bipolar poles of a single axis.
Predictive Validity: The inventory reliably differentiates clinical and behavioral subgroups. Scores on motivation to avoid risky sex and sexual-assertiveness predict consistent condom utilization, frequency of barrier-method communication, and participation in routine STI screenings over 6- and 12-month longitudinal follow-up windows. Elevated scores on fear-of-sex and sexual-anxiety reliably differentiate individuals diagnosed with sexual dysfunctions (e.g., genito-pelvic pain/penetration disorder, erectile dysfunction) from non-clinical controls.
Reliability
The MSSCQ demonstrates robust internal consistency and temporal stability across numerous international empirical studies:
Internal Consistency: Cronbach’s alpha ($lpha$) coefficients for the 20 subscales have been evaluated across collegiate, adult, and cross-cultural populations. In the initial normative validation sample (Snell, 1997, 1998), the alpha coefficients were distributed as follows:
- Sexual-Anxiety: $lpha = .85 – .90$
- Sexual Self-Efficacy: $lpha = .80 – .86$
- Sexual-Consciousness: $lpha = .78 – .84$
- Motivation to Avoid Risky Sex: $lpha = .84 – .89$
- Chance/Luck Sexual Control: $lpha = .79 – .85$
- Sexual-Preoccupation: $lpha = .86 – .91$
- Sexual-Assertiveness: $lpha = .76 – .83$
- Sexual-Optimism: $lpha = .75 – .82$
- Sexual Problem Self-Blame: $lpha = .81 – .87$
- Sexual-Monitoring: $lpha = .77 – .83$
- Sexual-Motivation: $lpha = .85 – .90$
- Sexual Problem Management: $lpha = .82 – .87$
- Sexual-Esteem: $lpha = .88 – .92$
- Sexual-Satisfaction: $lpha = .89 – .93$
- Power-Other Sexual Control: $lpha = .78 – .84$
- Sexual Self-Schemata: $lpha = .81 – .86$
- Fear-of-Sex: $lpha = .80 – .86$
- Sexual Problem Prevention: $lpha = .79 – .85$
- Sexual-Depression: $lpha = .87 – .91$
- Internal-Sexual-Control: $lpha = .74 – .81$
Virtually all subscales exceed the conventional psychometric threshold of $lpha ge .70$ for research purposes, with the majority surpassing $lpha ge .80$, indicating high measurement precision and low error variance.
Test-Retest Stability: Over 2-to-4-week test-retest intervals, Pearson stability coefficients ($r_{tt}$) range between $.68$ and $.87$, confirming that the MSSCQ captures enduring psychological dispositions, self-schemas, and cognitive orientations rather than transient situational mood states.
Factor Analysis
The structural composition of the MSSCQ was developed using both Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA).
During scale construction, an initial item pool of over 150 items was administered to extensive participant cohorts. Principal axis factoring with oblique (promax/oblimin) rotation revealed a stable 20-factor solution matching the theoretical blueprint. Each of the 20 primary factors accounted for substantial variance, with individual items demonstrating clean structural patterns:
- Primary factor loadings for assigned items routinely exceed $.55$, with the vast majority falling between $.65$ and $.85$.
- Cross-loadings on non-target factors rarely exceed $.25$, demonstrating distinct factor boundaries.
Subsequent structural modeling has supported second-order (higher-order) hierarchical factor analyses, identifying overarching superordinate psychosexual domains:
- Positive Sexual Agency & Well-Being: Comprising sexual self-efficacy, sexual-esteem, sexual-satisfaction, internal-sexual-control, sexual-optimism, and sexual self-schemata.
- Sexual Affective Distress: Comprising sexual-anxiety, sexual-depression, and fear-of-sex.
- External Sexual Attribution: Comprising power-other sexual control and chance/luck sexual control.
- Sexual Agency & Mastery: Comprising sexual-assertiveness, sexual problem management, and sexual problem prevention.
- Sexual Drive & Preoccupation: Comprising sexual-preoccupation and sexual-motivation.
- Risk Management & Vigilance: Comprising motivation to avoid risky sex, sexual-consciousness, and sexual-monitoring.
Goodness-of-fit parameters from multigroup CFA across male and female respondents support metric and scalar measurement invariance, demonstrating that the structural meaning of the 20 subscales functions equivalently across genders.
Instrument / Measurement Tool
- Instrument Name: The Multidimensional Sexual Self-Concept Questionnaire (MSSCQ)
- Developer: William E. Snell, Jr., Ph.D.
- Administration Type: Self-administered paper-and-pencil or interactive digital computer questionnaire
- Target Population: Adolescents and adults (ages 16 and above), applicable to both sexually active and sexually non-active/inexperienced individuals
- Completion Time: Approximately 15 to 25 minutes
- Total Item Count: 101 items (Items 1 to 100 measure the 20 psychometric dimensions; Item 101 provides the subjective contextual anchor)
- Item Format: Declarative self-evaluative statements
- Response Format: 5-point Likert-type rating scale:
- A = Not at all characteristic of me (0 points)
- B = Slightly characteristic of me (1 point)
- C = Somewhat characteristic of me (2 points)
- D = Moderately characteristic of me (3 points)
- E = Very characteristic of me (4 points)
(Note: Scoring can be operationalized either on a 0 to 4 continuum or a 1 to 5 continuum; Snell’s standard scoring assigns 0 = A, 1 = B, 2 = C, 3 = D, 4 = E).
- Subscale Composition (5 items per scale):
- (1) Sexual-Anxiety: Items 1, 21, 41, 61, 81
- (2) Sexual Self-Efficacy: Items 2, 22, 42, 62, 82
- (3) Sexual-Consciousness: Items 3, 23, 43, 63, 83
- (4) Motivation to Avoid Risky Sex: Items 4, 24, 44, 64, 84
- (5) Chance/Luck Sexual Control: Items 5, 25, 45, 65, 85
- (6) Sexual-Preoccupation: Items 6, 26, 46, 66, 86
- (7) Sexual-Assertiveness: Items 7, 27 (R), 47 (R), 67, 87
- (8) Sexual-Optimism: Items 8, 28, 48, 68 (R), 88 (R)
- (9) Sexual Problem Self-Blame: Items 9, 29, 49, 69, 89
- (10) Sexual-Monitoring: Items 10, 30, 50, 70, 90
- (11) Sexual-Motivation: Items 11, 31, 51, 71, 91
- (12) Sexual Problem Management: Items 12, 32, 52, 72, 92
- (13) Sexual-Esteem: Items 13, 33, 53, 73, 93
- (14) Sexual-Satisfaction: Items 14, 34, 54, 74, 94
- (15) Power-Other Sexual Control: Items 15, 35, 55, 75, 95
- (16) Sexual Self-Schemata: Items 16, 36, 56, 76, 96
- (17) Fear-of-Sex: Items 17, 37, 57, 77 (R), 97 (R)
- (18) Sexual Problem Prevention: Items 18, 38, 58, 78, 98
- (19) Sexual-Depression: Items 19, 39, 59, 79, 99
- (20) Internal-Sexual-Control: Items 20, 40, 60, 80, 100
- Reverse-Scored Items (R): Items 27, 47, 68, 77, 88, and 97 must be recoded prior to subscale score calculation (i.e., for 0–4 scale: $0 \leftrightarrow 4, 1 \leftrightarrow 3, 2 = 2$).
- Scoring Procedure: Raw subscale scores are generated by summing the ratings of the five constituent items for each subscale (range: 0 to 20 points per subscale). Higher scores indicate greater levels of the construct designated by the subscale name.
- Context Referent Item: Item 101 categorizes the relationship baseline upon which the respondent based their evaluations: (A) A current sexual relationship, (B) A past sexual relationship, or (C) An imagined sexual relationship.
Permissions & Fee and Test Year
The Multidimensional Sexual Self-Concept Questionnaire was officially introduced in 1997 via a presentation at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association and subsequently published in 1998 in the compendium Handbook of Sexuality-Related Measures (Sage Publications). Dr. William E. Snell, Jr. placed the MSSCQ in the public domain for non-commercial academic research and clinical educational use, provided appropriate formal scholarly citation is maintained. No licensing fees or royalty payments are required for institutional non-profit research. Commercial deployment, digital productization, or inclusion within fee-based software platforms requires formal permission from the copyright holders and author estate.
References
Andersen, B. L., & Cyranowski, J. M. (1994). Women’s sexual self-schema. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(6), 1079–1100. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.67.6.1079
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. W. H. Freeman and Company.
Davis, C. M., Yarber, W. L., Bauserman, R., Schreer, G., & Davis, S. L. (Eds.). (1998). Handbook of sexuality-related measures. Sage Publications.
Markus, H. (1977). Self-schemata and processing information about the self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35(2), 63–78. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.35.2.63
Rotter, J. B. (1966). Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 80(1), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0092976
Snell, W. E., Jr. (1997). Measuring multiple aspects of the sexual self-concept: The Multidimensional Sexual Self-Concept Questionnaire (MSSCQ). Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL.
Snell, W. E., Jr. (1998). The Multidimensional Sexual Self-Concept Questionnaire. In C. M. Davis, W. L. Yarber, R. Bauserman, G. Schreer, & S. L. Davis (Eds.), Handbook of sexuality-related measures (pp. 521–524). Sage Publications.
Wallston, K. A., Wallston, B. S., & DeVellis, R. (1978). Development of the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control (MHLC) Scales. Health Education Monographs, 6(2), 160–170. https://doi.org/10.1177/109019817800600107