Measurement of safe sex behavior in adolescents and young adults

Abstract

The aim of this project was to develop an instrument to measure use of safe sex practices among adolescents and to conduct initial evaluation of the psychometric properties of the instrument. The Safe Sex Behavior Questionnaire (SSBQ) was designed to measure the frequency of use of safe sex practices and was assessed for content validity, reliability, and construct validity through a series of tests. The content validity index computed for the SSBQ was 98%. Initial reliability computed for sums of items of the total scale was .82 among 89 college freshmen. Using a second sample of 531 subjects, the SSBQ was factor-analyzed separately for males and females and five similar factors emerged for each gender. Reliability coefficients for sums of salient items for each factor ranged from .52 to .85. Using a third sample of 174 subjects, construct validity was assessed by correlating the SSBQ with measures of general assertiveness and general risk-taking. The resulting correlations were appreciable and in the predicted directions, thus providing support for the construct validity of the instrument.