Are you sexually empowered? Validation of the Female Sexual Subjectivity Inventory for Spanish-speaking women

The Female Sexual Subjectivity Inventory (FSSI) consists of 20 items that represent three principal elements distributed into five factors that assess: Sexual body-esteem, Pleasure-self, Pleasure-partner, Self-efficacy, and Sexual Self-reflection. The goal was to adapt and examine the psychometric properties of the FSSI. The sample consisted of 278 Ecuadorian adult women. Item analysis, confirmatory factorial analysis, reliability, and evidence for validity were provided by examining associations with socio-demographic variables as well as with body image dissatisfaction and sexual self-consciousness. Using a confirmatory factor analysis, we confirmed a five-factor structure in which items 1 and 6 were deleted. Regarding socio-demographic factors, older women indicated greater sexual self-efficacy, while the women involved in longer relationships indicated less sexual self-efficacy and more entitlement from their partners. The FSSI-factors were associated with body image dissatisfaction and self-consciousness, which revealed that the women reporting greater sexual subjectivity also reported less body dissatisfaction and lower self-consciousness. The reliability of this 18-item version was good, and Cronbach’s alpha values ranged from .74 to .86. This study emphasises the need to re-examine the structure and psychometric properties of measures when applied to another context or culture. We provide evidence for the validity and reliability of the FSSI for Ecuadorian women.