Development and Psychometric Testing of an Instrument to Measure Adolescent Sexual Activity and Contraceptive Use

Abstract

Adolescent sexual behavior and contraceptive use are areas of concern due to the negative outcomes that may result, such as unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Although considerable research has been conducted in these areas, very few researchers publish their data collection instruments or report adequate measures of reliability and validity. Thus, it is uncertain if the results being obtained are accurate. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to construct a self-report instrument to measure adolescent sexual activity and contraceptive use and to test its psychometric properties.

With consideration given to the methodological issues pertinent to research dealing with sensitive topics, the self-administered questionnaire (SAQ) was developed and content validated by a panel of five experts; readability was established at an acceptable level, and pretesting was conducted with 25 Grades 10, 11, and 12 students. Following minor revisions, the instrument was tested with 59 students; 54 of those students were retested one month later.

A correlation matrix and a factor analysis provide empirical evidence for the SAQs' construct validity with the vaginal sex items (except for two) correlated with each other, with the frequently used methods of contraception, lX and with non-gender oral sex items; anal sex items were linked with one another; and oral sex items were subdivided into oral sex with a male and oral sex with a female. Internal consistency measures were conducted for the four factors that emerged from the factor analysis; all except one were below 0.6. Item-item correlations between the test and retest using Pearson's r correlation coefficients, indicate that 38 out of 44 items possess stability reliability over one month.

Overall, the results are favorable. Suggestions are given to improve the instrument and recommendations are made for further research.