Sex and the Internet: A survey instrument to assess college students' behavior and attitudes
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abstract
Due to the paucity of empirical data on college students' perceptions and behavior when searching the Internet for sexuality-related information, the purpose of this article is to present the development, psychometric properties, and initial validation results of an instrument designed to measure these factors. The questionnaire, based on Social Cognitive Theory, contained three scales to measure attitudes of students toward use of the Internet for (a) obtaining sexuality-related information, (b) establishing personal connections, and (c) for sexual entertainment/arousal. Each of these three scales consisted of two subscales, measuring expectancies and expectations for the above functions. The subscales demonstrated a high degree of internal consistency (alphas ranging from .76 to .95) and appropriate temporal stability (rs = .69 to .78). A Principal Components analysis of the subscales yielded a factor structure of six factors, accounting for 68.8% of the total variance. Importance of the instrument for sexuality research as well as its limitations are also presented.
