The GRISS: a psychometric instrument for the assessment of sexual dysfunction

Abstract

The Golombok Rust Inventory of Sexual Satisfaction (GRISS) is a short 28-item questionnaire for assessing the existence and severity of sexual problems. The design, construction, and item analysis of the GRISS are described. The two separate male and female scales are shown to have high split-half reliabilities of 0.94 for women and 0.87 for men. Validation of change scores in the GRISS on 30 clinical couples, before and after therapy, showed correlations with therapists' blind ratings of 0.54 (p less than 0.001) for men and 0.43 (p less than 0.01) for women. Discriminatory validity between clinical (n = 69) and nonclinical (n = 59) groups was r = 0.63 for women and r = 0.37 for men. The 12 subscales of impotence, premature ejaculation, anorgasmia, vaginismus, noncommunication, infrequency, male and female avoidance, male and female nonsensuality, and male and female dissatisfaction are also shown to have good reliability and validity.