Most Commonly Used Instruments to Quantify Sexual Addiction (Partly Based on Hook et al., 2010)83
| Instrument | Type of Questionnaire | Scoring and Results | Samples Studied | Psychometric Properties | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sexual Addiction Screening Test (SAST)28,84 | Self-Report Checklist (25 questions) | Yes/No Scores 0-25 Cutoff of 13 suggests sexual addiction | Psychotherapy patients, college students, community sample, physicians. Mostly heterosexual males. | Internal consistency 0.89–0.95 Good evidence of convergent validity (to other questionnaires) and discriminant validity with normal controls | Widely used in practice and research Validated in heterosexual male samples. Variants for women and gay men lack sufficient evidence. New version (SAST-R, 2010) has been validated across gender and orientation (N = 1604)84 |
| Sexual Compulsivity Scale (SCS)85 | Self-Report Rating Scale (10 questions) | Likert scales Scores 10-40 Cutoff of 24 indicates a problem with sexual addiction | More than 30 samples, including community samples, college students, patients with HIV, heterosexual and homosexual male and female samples | Internal consistency 0.59-0.92 (mostly above 0.7) Good evidence of convergent and discriminant validity | Most widely used in research |
| Sexual Addiction Scale (SAS) of the Disorder Screening Inventory (SDI)86 | Self-Reports Rating Scale (5 questions) | Likert scale Scores 0-20 0-5: Low risk 5-11: Moderate risk 12-20: High risk | 1 sample of 34 heterosexual male psychotherapy patients | Internal Consistency 0.83 Some evidence for discriminant validity with controls | Examines five components of sexual addiction: compulsive use, loss of control, negative consequences, covertness of use, codependent response |
| Sexual Dependence Inventory-Revised (SDI-R, 1998)87 | Self-Report Rating Scale (179 questions) | Likert scale Each question has 2 answers: Frequency (0-5) Power (0-5) 3 scores: Total score 2 composite scores 10 subscale scores for subdivisions of sexual addiction | Multiple samples including psychotherapy patients, community samples, sex offenders. Mostly studied in heterosexual males. | Internal consistency 0.99 for total scores (Power and Frequency), and 0.9-0.99 for subscale scores Some evidence for convergent and discriminant validity Some evidence of criterion-related validity | Long, in-depth 10 subscales: fantasy, seductive role playing, voyeurism, exhibitionism, paying for sex, trading sex, pain exchange, intrusive sex, exploitive sex, and anonymous sex |
| Compulsive Sexual Behavior Inventory (CSBI)88 | Self-Report Rating Scale (28 questions) | Likert scale (1 indicates highest frequency) Scores 28-140 (28 being most severe) 3 subscale scores: Loss of control Violence Abuse | Heterosexual males, heterosexual females, homosexual males, community samples, college students, psychotherapy patients | Internal consistency 0.68-0.87 Substantial psychometric support: good convergent and discriminant validity | Used in several studies Focuses on past abuse and connection to violence |
| Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale— Compulsive Sexual Behavior (YBOCS—CSB)14 | Clinician Rating Scale (10 questions) | Likert scale Scores 0-40 Higher scores indicating higher risk | Samples of gay and bisexual men | Internal consistency 0.66-0.99 Some convergent validity Sensitive to change over time | Limited initial evidence for reliability and validity Not studied in other populations |
| PATHOS89 | Self-Report Checklist (6) | Yes/No Scores 0-6 Cutoff of 3 suggests sexual addiction | 2 Studies done by Carnes et al.(95) Study 1: Inpatients receiving treatment for sexual addiction N = 1908 (30% females) Study 2: Outpatients receiving treatment for sexual addiction (N = 646, 86.8% males), college students (N = 203, 23.2% males), inpatients receiving treatment for sexual addiction (N= 64, 100% females) | Internal consistency 0.94 Good convergent and discriminant validity | Questions extracted from SAST:PreoccupiedAshamedTreatment soughtHurt othersOut of controlSad as a result Designed to resemble CAGE questionnaire for alcohol use disorder (desire to Cut down, Annoyed with people’s comments, Guilt about use, Eye-opener drinks) |