Psychometric Properties of Sex Addiction Screening Test-Revised (SAST-R) for Persian Population

Background and Objectives: Sexual addiction is known as a disorder that afflicts a person with difficulty in controlling or delaying sexual behaviors. In order to prevent social, physical, and psychological consequences, validated screening tests are needed to diagnose this disorder. One of these tests is established by Carnes with the name of “Sexual Addiction Screening Test-Revised” (SAST-R). In this study, Sexual Addiction Screening Test-Revised has been translated and verified in the Persian language. Methods: To this purpose, the original screening test was translated to the Persian language and also back translated for matching by two different expert teams. Data was collected through online survey from 1268 participants who were between 18 to 65 years old (M=29.44 and SD=6.90) that 56.1% and 43.9% of them where women and men respectively. Three questionnaires including sexual addiction screening test–revised (SAST-R), hypersexual behavior consequences scale, and Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale as the principal, convergent and divergent tests were administered to the participants. Results: The reliability of the test's internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.883), Split-Half (Cronbach's alpha = 0.779), and Guttman (lambda coefficients were between 0.773 to 0.883) tests were used. In addition, four methods of content validity (sexual hyperactivity specialist approved), convergent structure validity (P<0.001, R =0.731), the validity of divergent structure (P<0.09, R = -0.132), and factor validity (CFI=0.884, GFI=0.873, RMSEA=0.047) were measured and confirmed the validity of the test. Conclusion: The Persian version of the sexual addiction screening test–revised (SAST-R) seems to be a reliable pre-clinical tool to assess the severity of sexual desire of patients.

Online sexual addiction among adult males convicted of a sexual offense

Research has suggested that, in some cases, sexual offending might be a manifestation of an uncontrolled or compulsive online sexual activity, which may be conceptualized as a behavioral addiction. To deal with the lack of validated instruments to assess online sexual addiction, this study tested the psychometric properties of the Online Sexual Addiction Questionnaire (OSA-Q). To this end, a total of 100 men convicted of a sexual offense completed the Spanish version of the OSA-Q, along with the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III) for the assessment of related areas of impairment. Once individuals with social desirability response bias (n = 34) were extracted from the sample, the exploratory factor analysis yielded a four-factor structure explaining 77.06% of the variance for the OSA-Q. Additionally, internal consistency of the total score was strong (α = .97), and correlations with related clinical scales were significant. Overall, individuals convicted of online sexual offenses showed significantly higher scores on the OSA-Q than contact-exclusive offenders. These results justify the use of the OSA-Q (if accompanied by a valid assessment of social desirability response bias) in the screening of online sexual addiction in Spanish forensic samples, which might, in turn, improve existing risk management plans.

"Child Witches": Sexual Exploitation and Abuse of Homeless Girls in South-Southern Nigeria

Sexual exploitation and abuse of girls is one of the endemic social problems in Nigeria. Although this problem has attracted much research attention in recent times, some newly emerged factors contributing to the problem have been mostly ignored. This study explored how the abandonment of children following their stigmatization as witches contributes to sexual exploitation and abuse of the girls in the Akwa Ibom and Cross River states of Nigeria. The study was based on the qualitative research paradigm. Data was collected via semi-structured interviews of three senior staff members of the Child’s Rights and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN)—a children’s charity that manages a shelter for children abandoned as witches. Thematic analysis was conducted and five principal themes were developed from the data, which are (1) vulnerable to statutory rape; (2) living with sexual addiction; (3) targeted for human trafficking; (4) vulnerable to infections and pregnancy; and (5) exposed to intergenerational abuse. Theme (1) is concerned with how the girls are frequently raped by different groups of men due to the girls’ presence on the street. Theme (2) shows how the girls struggle with sexual addiction following frequent exposure to sexual activities since the early years of their lives. Theme (3) details how human traffickers target the girls for the sex trade, labor and other purposes. Theme (4) shows how the girls struggle with sexually transmitted infections and sometimes, pregnancy. Theme (5) details how the stigmatization and the consequent abuse of the stigmatized girls on the street also extend to their children, who are automatically regarded as the children of witches. Recommendations were made on how to address this social problem.