The Slut-Shaming Instrument: Preliminary validation, correlates, and links with psychological distress among adolescent girls

Abstract

Despite social awareness of the problem of slut-shaming for adolescent girls, no existing measure captures this construct. Using data from a sample of 202 girls from Québec, Canada (ages 14–17; 68% White), preliminary validation is provided for the Slut-Shaming Instrument, a seven-item measure of negative peer experiences related to being perceived as too sexually active, sexualized, or flirtatious. The measure showed strong psychometric properties including good reliability and factor structure, expected associations with daily experiences of slut-related victimization and sexual harassment, and links with number of sexual partners and other forms of peer victimization. Slut-shaming was associated with distress accounting for these other forms of victimization (including sexual harassment), suggesting the pertinence of addressing this type of gender-based victimization.