Introduction and objectives

Sexual aggression is a form of aggressive behaviors in dating relationships.   The aim of the present work was to analyze the psychometric properties of the Sexual Aggression Scale). This scale composed of 10 items with bidirectional questions. It aims to detect those behaviors of sexual aggression in dating relationships including threats and use of physical and coercive aggression.

Methodology

The sample was made up of 2.300 adolescents of both genders (49% women and 51% men), between 13 and 18 years. Results were analyzed with the SPSS 22.  The items were submitted for reliability and factorial analysis using the Oblimin rotation for construct validity. Finally, in order to determine the concurrent validity, the Scale was correlated with other psychological measures theoretically related to the construct of sexual aggression, such as the Modified Conflict Tactics Scale, M-CTS (originally created by Strauss, 1979 and validated by Muñoz-Rivas et al, 2007); Dominating and Jealous Tactics Scale, DJTS (Kasian and Painter, 1992); Attitudes About Aggression in Dating Situations AADS (Slep, Cascardi, Avery-Leaf and O´leary, 2001).

Results

Our results show an alpha coefficient of 0.78 which confirmed a good reliability.

The correlations between SAS and (M-CTS; DJTS and AADS) were significant (p<.001), respectively: r=.351; r=.332 and r= .154. These results confirm the concurrent validity. By means of exploratory factor analysis, three factors that were consistent with the theory and with previous research were identified: threats, use and coercive aggression (58.8% explained variance)

Conclusions

The Psychometric properties of SAS are adequate and the instrument can be useful to assess sexual aggression in dating relationships in young couples.