Ratings of Sexual Arousal and Ratings of Genital Sensations: Psychometric properties in Spanish sample

Objective: Subjective sexual arousal is the psychological perception of arousal. The Multiple Indicators of Subjective Sexual Arousal (MISSA) is one of the limited self-reported measures to evaluate it in a specific situation. The aim is to adapt and examine the psychometric properties of two scales from the MISSA: Ratings of Sexual Arousal (RSA) and Ratings of Genital Sensations (RGS) in a Spanish sample. Material and method: The measures were administered to two independent samples composed by heterosexual young individuals aged from 18 to 30 years old. In the first sample (n=122) the factorial structure of the RSA was examined, which was later confirmed in a second sample (n=336) where invariance analysis by sex and validity evidences were also analyzed. Both, the RSA and the RGS, together with other scales measuring similar constructs, were answered by participants from both studies (N=458) in a laboratory setting in which individuals were exposed to films with neutral content and explicit sexual content. Results: The Spanish version of the RSA shows a unidimensional structure with adequate reliability (alpha=.90). This structure showed to be invariant by sex, thus no significant differences were found between men and women. Scores from both, the RSA and the RGS correlated with higher predisposition to get excited and erotophilja. Conclusions: The RSA and RGS are reliable and valid measures to evaluate subjective sexual arousal towards sexual stimuli. Therefore, their use is suitable for both clinical and research areas. (C) 2016 Asociacion Espanola de Andrologia, Medicina Sexual y Reproductiva. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. All rights reserved.