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. 2023 Nov 21:14:1265822.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1265822. eCollection 2023.

Impulsivity and sexual addiction: factor structure and criterion-related validity of the sexual addiction screening test in Mexican adults

Diana Mejía Cruz  1 , Laurent Avila Chauvet  1 , Luis Villalobos-Gallegos  2 , Christian Gabriel Toledo-Lozano  3
Affiliations

Impulsivity and sexual addiction: factor structure and criterion-related validity of the sexual addiction screening test in Mexican adults

Diana Mejía Cruz et al. Front Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Sexual addiction is associated with serious health problems. Due to that fact, it is quite important to perform a comprehensive assessment. The Sex Addiction Screening Test (SAST-R) is a self-administered questionnaire with good psychometric properties used in several countries. Our study conducts a cross-cultural adaptation of the SAST-R on the Mexican population. The original version of the SAST-R was translated into Mexican Spanish, and we performed a pilot with 23 participants to be sure that the participants understood the meaning of the items. The final version was administered to 370 adults who completed the SAST-R, and measures of impulsivity (the Kirby questionnaire), reward/punishment responsivity (BIS-BAS scale), personality (BIG-Five), and psychological distress (SCL-90). The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with a five-factor model with one second-order factor model had the best fit. Reliability analysis suggests acceptable internal consistency (α = 0.80). The SAST-R scores exhibited significant correlations with several variables. Specifically, they showed a positive correlation with the neuroticism scale (r = 0.11, p < 0.05), a negative correlation with the conscientiousness scale (r = -0.21, p < 0.01), a negative correlation with the BIS scale (r = -0.11, p < 0.05), and a positive correlation with psychological distress (r = 0.34, p < 0.01). Notably, there were no significant correlations observed with variables that we initially expected to have a substantial association, such as impulsivity (r = -0.004, p > 0.05) and the three BAS subscales (p > 0.05). We found with an algorithm that psychological distress, impulsivity, neuroticism, and agreeableness were the good predictors to identify high scores of hypersexuality. Our results confirmed that the Mexican Spanish version of the SAST-R has good psychometric properties to be used in future research.

Keywords: impulsivity; personality; psychological distress; reward/punishment responsivity; sex addiction.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Results of confirmatory factor analysis. F, Associated features; P, Preoccupation; A, AFFECT disturbance; R, Relationship disturbance; C, Loss of control.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Hypersexuality and no-hypersexuality instrument scores. K, K value; SCL 90, Symptom checklist; Extra, Extraversion; Cons, Conscientiousness; Agree, Agreeableness; Neuro, Neuroticism; Open, Openness; BIS, Behavioral Inhibition Scale; BAS-D, Behavioral Activation Scale-Drive; BAS-F, Behavioral Activation Scale-Fun Seeking; BAS-RR, Behavioral Activation Scale-Reward Responsiveness. ***Statistical significance between hypersexuality, and no-hypersexuality in that variables.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Classification and regression trees (CART) algorithm. K, K value; SCL 90, Symptom checklist.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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