Adaptation and validation of the Sexual Sensation Seeking Scale for Portuguese higher education students

Background: The use of personality assessment tools is essential not only to understand sexual behaviors but also to develop nursing interventions for the prevention of sexual risk behaviors. Objectives: Adaptation and validation of the Sexual Sensation Seeking Scale (SSSS) for Portuguese higher education students. Methodology: Descriptive and correlational study using a sample of 1,946 college students aged 18 to 29 years. The final sample was composed of 1500 students who already had sexual intercourse. The psychometric characteristics of SSSS were assessed using 2 randomized subgroups. Results: The exploratory factor analysis revealed a two-factor structure with 9 items, which explained 54.80% of the total variance. The model showed a good internal consistency (... = 0.789). The confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the adequate goodness-of-fi of the modified model. Conclusion: The instrument has good validity, fidelity, and reliability, and can be used to assess young people's sexual sensation seeking behaviors.