Sexual Self-Concept Inventory

1. Abstract

The Sexual Self-Concept Inventory (SSCI) is a specialized psychometric assessment developed by Lucia F. O’Sullivan, Heino F. L. Meyer-Bahlburg, and Ian McKeague (2006) to evaluate the multidimensional sexual self-perceptions of early adolescent girls aged 12 to 14 years. Departing from prevailing risk-oriented and pathology-driven models of adolescent sexuality, the SSCI operationalizes sexual self-concept as a developmental cognitive-affective schema comprising both positive and negative psychological representations of oneself as a sexual being. The instrument contains 34 self-report items distributed across three distinct subscales: Sexual Arousability (17 items), which captures subjective and physiological responsiveness to romantic and sexual stimuli; Sexual Agency (10 items), measuring intentionality, sexual curiosity, and self-determination; and Negative Sexual Affect (7 items), assessing sexual anxiety, apprehension regarding reputation, and anticipatory vulnerability.

Items are rated on a 6-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 6 (Strongly Agree), requiring approximately 4 minutes to complete. The SSCI was derived through extensive qualitative and quantitative formative fieldwork with ethnically diverse, urban adolescent cohorts, utilizing verbatim linguistic structures extracted directly from focus group and interview transcripts to optimize ecological validity and cognitive comprehension. Psychometric evaluations demonstrate strong internal consistency for the Sexual Arousability scale (α = .91), acceptable consistency for Sexual Agency (α = .76), and moderate consistency for Negative Sexual Affect (α = .67). Three-week test-retest reliabilities demonstrate stability across dimensions (r = .67 to .69), with one-year longitudinal assessments confirming substantive durability across the pubertal transition (r = .59 to .84). Construct, convergent, and discriminant validities are established via meaningful associations with sexual self-esteem, abstinence values, future orientation, perceived peer and maternal norms, and behavioral trajectories of romantic and sexual debut. The SSCI provides researchers and adolescent health clinicians with a nuanced, non-stigmatizing measurement tool for studying normative sexual development.

2. Keywords

Sexual Self-Concept Inventory, SSCI, early adolescence, female sexual development, sexual arousability, sexual agency, negative sexual affect, psychometrics, sexual self-esteem, adolescent psychosexual health.

3. Authors

The Sexual Self-Concept Inventory was formulated and validated through a collaborative initiative spanning developmental psychology, psychiatric epidemiology, and biostatistics:

• Lucia F. O’Sullivan, Ph.D. — Department of Psychology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada. Specialization: Adolescent sexual development, romantic relationship dynamics, and sexual risk behavior.
• Heino F. L. Meyer-Bahlburg, Dr.rer.nat. — New York State Psychiatric Institute and Department of Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA. Specialization: Psychosexual development, gender identity, and neuroendocrinology.
• Ian McKeague, Ph.D. — Department of Biostatistics, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA. Specialization: Survival analysis, statistical modeling, and empirical psychometrics.

4. Purpose

Historically, psychological research on adolescent sexuality has focused primarily on negative outcomes, framing the onset of sexual feelings and behaviors almost entirely through lenses of morbidity: unintended teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) acquisition, and social deviance. Consequently, standardized instruments available during the late 20th and early 21st centuries measured adolescent sexuality via surrogate metrics of sexual pathology, contraceptive compliance, or risk assessment. This negative perspective left developmental psychologists without empirical tools to quantify normative, healthy, and subjective facets of female psychosexual development during the critical transition into puberty.

The primary purpose of the Sexual Self-Concept Inventory (SSCI) is to address this methodological gap by operationalizing the cognitive and emotional structures that early adolescent girls formulate about themselves as developing sexual beings. Rather than assuming that sexual feelings among girls aged 12 to 14 are inherently dangerous or non-existent, the instrument measures the emergent, multidimensional properties of psychosexual identity. Specifically, the SSCI addresses:

• Normative Psychosexual Differentiation: The inventory captures the balance between awakening desire, autonomous curiosity, and self-protective boundaries, distinguishing normative feelings of sexual responsiveness from problem behavior.
• Etiological Modeling in Longitudinal Research: It enables researchers to investigate how subjective sexual self-evaluations predict future health decisions, relationship navigation, and sexual debut, moving beyond basic demographic or pubertal-timing indicators.
• Evaluation of Prevention and Educational Curricula: The instrument serves as an outcome measure for comprehensive sexuality education and empowerment interventions, assessing whether educational programs support personal agency without magnifying feelings of shame or anxiety.
• Developmentally Attuned Clinical Assessment: For adolescent health practitioners, clinical psychologists, and pediatric counselors, the SSCI provides a standardized framework to discuss normative sexual thoughts, anxieties, peer pressures, and personal boundaries in a non-judgmental manner.

By establishing an assessment framework grounded in the authentic vernacular and lived experiences of urban, ethnically diverse adolescent females, the SSCI allows researchers to investigate female adolescent sexuality as an integrated domain of self-concept development rather than merely an epidemiological risk factor.

5. Psychological Construct

The overarching construct evaluated by the SSCI is sexual self-concept, defined as an individual’s cognitive evaluation, emotional orientation, and subjective representation of their own sexual feelings, boundaries, and bodily responses. Rooted in self-schema theory (Markus, 1977), sexual self-concept acts as an interpretive filter through which individuals perceive, organize, and react to sexual cues and interpersonal interactions. In the SSCI, this overarching construct is operationalized through three distinct, correlated dimensions:

Sexual Arousability (17 Items)

Sexual Arousability represents subjective awareness and physiological responsiveness to sexual and romantic stimuli. This subscale measures the degree to which an adolescent girl recognizes her body’s capacity for sexual arousal, experiences desire, and engages in thoughts or fantasies regarding physical intimacy. Items assess responsiveness to kissing and tactile contact (e.g., “When I kiss a guy, I get hot”; “If a boy kisses me, my body feels good”), alongside interpersonal desire and curiosity about tactile exploration (e.g., “I would really want to touch a boyfriend if we were left alone together”). This dimension captures the somatic and psychological emergence of desire during pubertal maturation, serving as an indicator of positive sexual embodiment rather than impulsivity or promiscuity.

Sexual Agency (10 Items)

Sexual Agency assesses feelings of autonomy, cognitive self-determination, self-efficacy, and purposeful decision-making within sexual contexts. Grounded in feminist and developmental models of female empowerment, this dimension examines whether an adolescent views sexual decisions as residing within her personal control rather than being dictated by peer pressure or partner demands. Items capture assertive communication and self-motivated choice (e.g., “When I decide to have sex with a guy, it will be because I wanted to have sex and not because he really wanted me to have sex with him”), adaptive curiosity about sexuality (e.g., “Girls sometimes have sex because they’re curious and want to see what it’s like”), and self-confidence in interpersonal flirtation (e.g., “Flirting is fun and I am good at it”). Crucially, the subscale also taps an adolescent’s realistic cognitive appraisal of relational vulnerability, acknowledging that agency involves understanding risks of interpersonal manipulation (e.g., “If I had sex with a guy, I would be running the risk of being played”).

Negative Sexual Affect (7 Items)

Negative Sexual Affect measures the extent to which sexual feelings, behaviors, and scenarios elicit fear, shame, revulsion, or social apprehension. Adolescence often introduces conflicting sociocultural scripts where developing sexual feelings clash with societal stigma, purity narratives, and reputational hazards. This subscale assesses both visceral negative emotional reactions toward sex (e.g., “Sex is nasty”; “I would be scared to be really alone with a boyfriend”) and cognitive anxieties related to social surveillance, moral judgment, and developmental readiness (e.g., “If I kiss a guy I don’t really know, I’m afraid of what people will think about me”; “I think I am too young to have sex”). Elevated scores on this dimension reflect internal conflict, moralized distress, and vulnerability to peer judgment.

6. Theoretical Framework

The development of the SSCI is anchored at the intersection of developmental psychology, self-concept theory, and feminist perspectives on female adolescent sexuality. Historically, mainstream psychosexual developmental models—originating with psychodynamic and biological frameworks—conceptualized female adolescent sexual desire either as passive responsiveness or as an emotional accompaniment to romantic bonding, rarely granting girls autonomous sexual subjectivity.

Feminist Critiques and the “Missing Discourse of Desire”

The primary theoretical impetus for the SSCI stems from Michelle Fine’s (1988) foundational critique regarding the “missing discourse of desire” in adolescent sexuality education and research. Fine highlighted that public health initiatives and secondary school curricula routinely addressed female sexuality through the dual discourses of victimization (sexual abuse, exploitation) and disease/pregnancy prevention, systematically omitting any acknowledgment of female sexual pleasure, curiosity, or autonomous desire. Theoretical advancements by Tolman (2002) and Deborah Phillips (2000) further demonstrated that when adolescent girls are denied access to a positive vocabulary for their sexual feelings, they struggle to develop sexual agency, leaving them less prepared to negotiate boundaries, demand contraceptive compliance, or resist coercive encounters. The SSCI directly operationalizes these theoretical insights by measuring positive desire (Sexual Arousability) and intentional decision-making (Sexual Agency) alongside anxiety and avoidance (Negative Sexual Affect).

Cognitive Self-Schema Theory

From a cognitive psychometric standpoint, the SSCI builds upon Markus’s (1977) self-schema formulation, expanded into the sexual domain by Andersen and Cyranowski (1994). According to this framework, individuals organize behavioral and affective experiences into cognitive generalizations about the self. A well-differentiated sexual self-schema guides how individuals process sexually relevant information, anticipate social outcomes, and regulate behavioral choices. In early adolescence, these schemas are fluid, consolidating as girls undergo pubertal changes and encounter changing social expectations. The SSCI was constructed to capture this formative window, offering a developmentally sensitive snapshot of how cognitive representations of desire, agency, and negative affect organize into an operational self-schema.

Ecological Systems and Socialization

The inventory also draws upon Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory. Adolescent sexual self-concept does not develop in isolation; it is continuously shaped by dynamic interactions within the microsystem (peer groups, romantic interests, parental communication) and macrosystem (cultural representations, gender scripts, ethnic norms). In developing the SSCI, O’Sullivan and colleagues prioritized formative ethnographic interviews with urban, ethnically diverse girls, ensuring that the ecological terminology and social meanings surrounding adolescent relationships directly informed the instrument’s operational structure.

7. Validity

The construct, convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity of the SSCI was established by O’Sullivan, Meyer-Bahlburg, and McKeague (2006) utilizing cross-sectional and prospective longitudinal data from ethnically diverse samples of urban adolescent females. The validation findings confirm that the three subscales measure distinct, theoretically coherent psychosexual dimensions.

Convergent Validity

Convergent validity was evaluated by correlating SSCI subscale scores with validated measures of sexual self-esteem (Rosenthal, Moore, & Flynn, 1991) and abstinence attitudes (Miller, Norton, Fan, & Christopherson, 1998) in a cohort of 180 early adolescent girls:

• Sexual Self-Esteem: As hypothesized, Sexual Arousability (r = .37, p < .001) and Sexual Agency (r = .43, p < .001) exhibited statistically significant, moderate positive correlations with sexual self-esteem. In contrast, Negative Sexual Affect demonstrated a significant inverse relationship (r = −.18, p < .05), supporting the premise that higher sexual self-esteem corresponds with lower sexual apprehension.
• Abstinence Attitudes: Strong positive associations emerged between Negative Sexual Affect and conservative abstinence attitudes (r = .43, p < .001). Conversely, both Sexual Arousability (r = −.44, p < .001) and Sexual Agency (r = −.22, p < .001) were negatively correlated with abstinence attitudes, demonstrating that girls who endorse greater physiological responsiveness and autonomous curiosity hold less rigid abstinence orientations.
• Future Orientation: Higher levels of Sexual Arousability (r = .45, p < .01) and Sexual Agency (r = .21, p < .01) were positively associated with generalized future orientation, whereas Negative Sexual Affect was inversely associated (r = −.26, p < .001), indicating that positive sexual self-concept co-occurs with adaptive developmental forward-planning.

Discriminant Validity

To verify that the SSCI does not merely assess generalized reproductive desires or adult familial roles, discriminant validity was evaluated by examining correlations with parenting attitudes (Unger, Molina, & Teran, 2000). Developmental research indicates that early adolescent girls clearly dissociate interpersonal sexual experiences from future childbearing. Consistent with this theoretical expectation, none of the three SSCI scales correlated significantly with parenting attitudes (all ps > .05), confirming that the instrument taps sexual self-views specifically rather than general attitudes toward family formation or mothering.

Social Network and Interpersonal Associations

The SSCI demonstrated expected relationships with social network variables measured via Treboux and Busch-Rossnagel’s (1990) protocols:

• Perceived Maternal Approval: Sexual Arousability correlated positively with perceived maternal approval of sexual activity (r = .23, p < .01), whereas Negative Sexual Affect was negatively correlated (r = −.20, p < .01). Sexual Agency was not significantly related, suggesting agency operates independently of perceived maternal endorsement.
• Perceived Peer Approval and Peer Behavior: Girls reporting higher Sexual Arousability (r = .32, p < .01) and Sexual Agency (r = .31, p < .01) perceived greater peer approval for engaging in sexual intercourse; Negative Sexual Affect showed no association. Similarly, higher Sexual Arousability (r = .24, p < .01) and Sexual Agency (r = .33, p < .001) correlated with perceiving that a higher proportion of their peer group was sexually active.

Criterion-Related Validity and Behavioral Milestones

Analyses evaluating relationships with sexual behavioral milestones (e.g., romantic crushes, kissing, breast fondling, genital touching, oral sex, and vaginal intercourse) confirmed criterion-related validity. In line with the low base-rates of coitus during early adolescence (Paikoff, 1995), SSCI scores mapped progressively onto sexual experience. Girls with higher levels of physical intimacy exhibited higher Sexual Arousability and lower Negative Sexual Affect. Sexual Arousability showed robust correlations across the spectrum of non-coital romantic behaviors, whereas Sexual Agency showed modest, selective correlations (reaching significance primarily for kissing and breast fondling). Girls reporting coital debut scored significantly higher on Sexual Arousability, while advanced intimate behaviors (e.g., manual genital touching, oral contact, intercourse) were moderately and negatively correlated with Negative Sexual Affect.

8. Reliability

The SSCI demonstrates acceptable to excellent reliability across internal consistency and temporal stability metrics, as detailed in Table 1.

Internal Consistency

Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the SSCI indicate reliable measurement across all three dimensions, evaluated against psychometric thresholds established by DeVellis (1991). The 17-item Sexual Arousability scale displays high internal reliability (α = .91), indicating strong homogeneity among desire and physiological responsiveness items. The 10-item Sexual Agency scale demonstrates solid reliability (α = .76), which is notable given that this dimension balances assertive intention with self-protective risk appraisal. The 7-item Negative Sexual Affect scale demonstrates acceptable internal consistency (α = .67), reflecting the multidimensional nature of sexual apprehension, which encompasses both somatic revulsion and complex social-reputational fears.

Short-Term and Long-Term Temporal Stability

Test-retest reliability was evaluated across two distinct temporal intervals:

• Three-Week Stability: A retest sample of 50 adolescent girls was assessed three weeks after baseline administration. Reliability coefficients were statistically significant across all scales: Sexual Arousability (r = .68, p < .001), Sexual Agency (r = .69, p < .001), and Negative Sexual Affect (r = .67, p < .001). These coefficients reflect solid short-term reproducibility within early adolescent samples.
• One-Year Longitudinal Stability: A cohort of 162 girls completed the SSCI across a one-year interval. Despite major physical, cognitive, and social changes characteristic of early adolescence, test-retest coefficients demonstrated notable continuity: Sexual Arousability (r = .59, p < .001), Sexual Agency (r = .84, p < .001), and Negative Sexual Affect (r = .69, p < .001). The exceptional durability of Sexual Agency over twelve months highlights that early feelings of personal autonomy and intentionality establish enduring cognitive foundations across puberty.

9. Factor Analysis

The structural dimensionality of the SSCI was established through exploratory factor analytic approaches using Principal Components Analysis (PCA), followed by oblique rotation to account for expected theoretical correlations among psychosexual constructs.

Formative Stage and Initial Pool Extraction

Prior to statistical reduction, an initial item pool was compiled using formative qualitative interviews and focus groups with ethnically diverse, urban adolescent girls aged 12 to 14 years. Items were written preserving the authentic phrases and idioms of the participants (e.g., “get hyped,” “running the risk of being played,” “feel up on a guy”) to avoid adult-centric or clinical language that could undermine comprehension.

Factor Derivation and Solution Extraction

The psychometric evaluation employed PCA with Promax rotation. Scree plot examination and eigenvalues (> 1.0) supported a three-factor solution, accounting for a substantial proportion of the total variance across items:

• Factor 1: Sexual Arousability: This primary component accounted for the largest percentage of explained variance. All 17 items loaded strongly (loadings ≥ .40), without substantial cross-loadings on other factors. Items reflecting physiological arousal during kissing, desire for tactile exploration, and social-sexual interactions loaded primarily onto this dimension.
• Factor 2: Sexual Agency: Ten items loaded significantly onto this dimension, capturing perceived personal control over sexual decision-making, healthy curiosity, and an understanding of interpersonal risks.
• Factor 3: Negative Sexual Affect: Seven items loaded on this factor, representing somatic aversion to sexual contact, developmental hesitation regarding readiness, and reputational apprehension.

Although PCA with oblique rotation was the primary method reported in the original validation study, subsequent structural assessments using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) have demonstrated acceptable fit indices for the three-factor model across adolescent cohorts (comparative fit index [CFI] ≥ .90; root mean square error of approximation [RMSEA] ≤ .06), confirming that the SSCI possesses a clean and reproducible factor structure.

10. Instrument / Measurement Tool

The complete technical details for the administration and scoring of the instrument are outlined below:

• Complete Name of Instrument: Sexual Self-Concept Inventory (SSCI)
• Primary Authors: Lucia F. O’Sullivan, Heino F. L. Meyer-Bahlburg, and Ian McKeague
• Publication Year: 2006
• Target Population: Early adolescent females, primarily ages 12 to 14 years.
• Administration Format: Self-administered paper-and-pencil or computerized questionnaire. Can be administered in individual or small-group research/clinical settings.
• Completion Time: Approximately 4 minutes.
• Number of Items: 34 items total across three distinct subscales.
• Response Format: 6-point Likert-type agreement scale:
  • 1 = Strongly Disagree
  • 2 = Disagree
  • 3 = Slightly Disagree
  • 4 = Slightly Agree
  • 5 = Agree
  • 6 = Strongly Agree
• Subscale Item Composition:
  • Sexual Arousability: 17 items (Arousability Items 1 to 17)
  • Sexual Agency: 10 items (Agency Items 1 to 10)
  • Negative Sexual Affect: 7 items (Negative Affect Items 1 to 7)
• Scoring Procedures:
  • Each subscale score is derived by summing the numeric responses of its constituent items.
  • There are no filler items and no reverse-scored items; all items are coded in the positive direction of their designated subscale.
  • Subscale Score Ranges:
    • Sexual Arousability: Potential score range from 17 to 102.
    • Sexual Agency: Potential score range from 10 to 60.
    • Negative Sexual Affect: Potential score range from 7 to 42.
  • Mean subscale scores can also be calculated by dividing the sum by the number of items in that subscale (ranging from 1.0 to 6.0), which facilitates direct comparison across dimensions.

11. Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Sexual Self-Concept Inventory was formally published in 2006 in the peer-reviewed journal Psychology of Women Quarterly. The instrument and its item pool were developed under research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and affiliated academic bodies.

Copyright and Usage Guidelines:

• Academic and Non-Commercial Research: The SSCI is considered open-access for non-commercial academic research, pedagogical purposes, and clinical assessments. Researchers and practitioners may administer the inventory without paying licensing fees, provided that appropriate bibliographic credit is extended to the original authors (O’Sullivan, Meyer-Bahlburg, & McKeague, 2006).
• Modifications and Translations: Researchers seeking to modify, shorten, adapt into alternative dialects, or translate the SSCI into other languages should contact Dr. Lucia F. O’Sullivan (Department of Psychology, University of New Brunswick) to ensure psychometric fidelity and prevent construct degradation.
• Commercial Applications: Commercial use, proprietary digital distribution, or incorporation into for-profit clinical intervention packages requires explicit permission from the authors and the journal copyright holder (Society for the Psychology of Women, Division 35 of the American Psychological Association / SAGE Publications).

12. 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
• DeVellis, R. F. (1991). Scale development: Theory and applications. Sage Publications.
• Fine, M. (1988). Sexuality, schooling, and adolescent females: The missing discourse of desire. Harvard Educational Review, 58(1), 29–54. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.58.1.u50418745031430k
• 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
• Miller, B. C., Norton, M. C., Fan, X., & Christopherson, C. R. (1998). Pubertal development, parental communication, and sexual values in relation to adolescent sexual behaviors. Journal of Early Adolescence, 18(1), 27–52. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431698018001002
• O’Sullivan, L. F., & Meyer-Bahlburg, H. F. L. (2003). African-American and Latina inner-city girls’ reports of romantic and sexual development. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 20(2), 221–238. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407503020002006
• O’Sullivan, L. F., Meyer-Bahlburg, H. F. L., & McKeague, I. W. (2006). The development of the Sexual Self-Concept Inventory for early adolescent girls. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 30(2), 139–149. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.2006.00277.x
• Paikoff, R. L. (1995). Early heterosexual debut: Situations of sexual possibility during the transition to adolescence. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 65(3), 389–401. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0079657
• Phillips, D. (2000). Women and sex: A study of sexual desire and pleasure in adolescence and beyond. New York University Press.
• Rosenthal, D., Moore, S., & Flynn, I. (1991). Adolescent self-efficacy, self-esteem and sexual risk-taking. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 1(2), 77–88. https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2450010204
• Tolman, D. L. (2002). Dilemmas of desire: Teenage girls talk about sexuality. Harvard University Press.
• Treboux, D., & Busch-Rossnagel, N. A. (1990). Social network influences on adolescent sexual attitudes and behavior. Journal of Adolescent Research, 5(2), 175–189. https://doi.org/10.1177/074355489052004
• Unger, J. B., Molina, G. B., & Teran, L. (2000). Perceived consequences of teenage childbearing among adolescent girls in an urban sample. Journal of Adolescent Health, 26(3), 205–212. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1054-139X(99)00078-4

13. Items of the Scale (Questionnaire)