Revising Sexual Addiction Assessment Tools For Taiwan’s Male Population:reliminary studies

Assessing Sexual Addiction in Taiwan’s Male Population:eveloping Reliability and Validity of Sexual Addiction Assessment Tools nne Ya Ju Hsubstract Sexual addiction (SA), a condition in which a person becomes destructively consumed by sexual cravings and or one who gives into the sexual cravings with impulsive or compulsive sexual behavior causing severe psycho, physical, interpersonal, filial, social, financial, legal, and occupational distress. SA had been subject to lay public and academic discussion due to the alarming consequences involved. The purpose of the present study was to apply two measures from past research, the Sexual Addiction Screening Test (SAST) and the Sexual Compulsivity Scale (SCS), self report questionnaires designed to assess sexual addiction and sexual compulsion respectively to the test in Taiwan male population. The present study hypothesized that: 1. Sexual addiction can be evaluated. 2. SAST and SCS hold basic reliability and validity. 3. Sexual addiction can be screened with these assessment tools. The participants were North Taiwan prison’s sexual offender, South Taiwan’s military school students and a web based convenient sample from acquaintances. The sexual offenders were interviewed and categorized into either the SA or the non SA groups. All of the subjects completed SAST and SCS and related measures. Results were statistically analyzed to find that the two measures were promising assessment tools for sexual addiction in the clinical and research field to be used with further verification. In sum, the results of the present study partially supported the proposed hypotheses. SA’s sexual addictive feelings and thoughts as well as sexually compulsive behaviors can be evaluated and are significantly stronger in sexual offenders who are sexual addicts over other sexual offenders and the general adult males as measured by SAST and SCS. The SAST and SCS were shown to have some basic reliability and validity. The limitations of the present study were its participants’ sample size and atypical traits as well as the lack of Mandarin preexisting established scales for further verification. Implications and future directions of SA research were discussed.