Development of the atypical sexual interests (self-report) scale: the dimensional structure of paraphilia

Abstract

According to the DSM-5, an individual is diagnosed with a paraphilic disorder when there are persistent behaviours or fantasies that cause distress and/or impairment. However, there is limited research on assessing a continuum of paraphilic interest. The current study sampled 1,650 individuals (age range = 18–93 years, M = 33.64, SD = 16.1) from the general population in assessing a novel 53-item scale – Atypical Sexual Interests Scale (ASIS) – that measures six atypical interests: devotism, frotteurism, voyeurism, exhibitionism, sexual sadism, and sexual masochism. Factor analyses identified that the six-factor model was a poor fit, with the former suggesting a four-factor model; 21 poorly performing items were consequently removed from the scale, and a second confirmatory factor analysis was run. While the six-factor model was a better fit on the refined ASIS compared to unitary and four-factor models, three subscales (frotteurism, voyeurism and exhibitionism) possibly ‘tap into’ a single courtship deviation construct.