Age, Gender, and Sexual Motivation Inventory

Age, Gender, and Sexual Motivation Inventory‌‌‌

DAVID QUADAGNO,1 Florida State University

The Age, Gender, and Sexual Motivation Inventory (AGSMI) was originally developed to measure the relation- ships between gender and age and motivations for engaging in sexual activities, favored part of a sexual experience (foreplay, intercourse, and afterplay), ideal benefit to be gained from engaging in sexual activities, and other aspects of sexual behavior and satisfaction (Sprague & Quadagno, 1989). The literature on sexual motivation consistently indicates that males are primarily motivated by physical and women by emotional factors when college-aged individuals are the subjects (e.g., see Bardwick, 1971; Carroll, Volk, & Hyde, 1985; Denney, Field, & Quadagno, 1984). When a diverse age group was sampled, the results from AGSMI indicated very clearly that inferences about sexual motivations for the whole population couldn’t be drawn from studies of a very limited and relatively inexperienced segment of it. In addition, in using the AGSMI, we found only a moderate relationship between usual motive for engaging in sexual intercourse and the respondent’s assessment of its most important benefit. The AGSMI can be used to examine gender differences in many aspects of sexual behaviors, satisfaction, and motivations in a similar age group, or changes in sexuality in men and women at varying ages.

Description

The AGSMI begins with a demographic section, in which the respondents record information including, but not limited to, age, gender, marital status, employment status, sexual orientation, and combined family income. The demographic section is followed by 25 questions, 23 of which are multiple choice and 2 of which call for short answers. The sample used in the development of the instrument included 95 women and 84 men ranging in age from 22 to 57 years of age; mean age for the women was 31.2 and for the men was 31.7 years.

Response Mode and Timing

Respondents can circle the letter of choice for each question on the instrument and can also write their responses to the short-answer items on the instrument. As an alternative, if it is administered to a large group at the same time, a separate answer sheet can be used to record responses. The majority of the test items have three to five response choices. The inventory requires approximately 5 to 8 minutes to complete.

Scoring

The instrument is not designed to produce any combined or total scores for groups of items. Comparisons between individuals or between groups on individual items can be made.

Reliability

A rough indication of the reliability of responses to the instrument can be gained from a comparison of the answers of male and female respondents to three items that asked average frequency of sexual intercourse per week, usual time spent in foreplay, and usual time spent in afterplay. Assuming the respondents and their sex partners are all from the same heterosexual population, there should be no aggregate gender differences on any of these items (i.e., if men in the population are averaging sexual intercourse three nights per week then females in the population should also have this average frequency). In addition, if men or women have a tendency to overstate or understate the time spent in foreplay or afterplay, this response bias would be reflected in differences between their means in the sample. No significant gender differences in responses to these questions were found, suggesting that whatever response biases may be operating in these data are not strongly associated with gender.

In addition, two differently phrased questions (Questions 16 and 23) probed the favored part of a sexual encounter and found agreement for both male and female respondents.

Validity

The results reported in the questionnaire responses of the younger age groups (22–25, 26–30, and 31–35 years of age) were in perfect agreement with previously published studies of college-aged individuals (Bardwick, 1971; Carroll et al., 1985; Denney et al., 1984). The findings from our older age groups (36–57 years of age) do not have a com- parable sample because of the lack of studies of this type using older individuals.

Age, Gender, and Sexual Motivation Inventory

1. Age             

2. Sex     ; For women only: Past menopause? Yes      ; No             

3. What is your marital status? (Check one)

               never married

               separated

               married

               divorced

               widowed

4. If married, how long in current marriage?             

5. Age of current spouse             

6. What is your employment status? (Check one)

               full-time homemaker

               employed part-time outside the home

               employed full-time outside the home

               student

7. What is your approximate yearly household income? (Check one)

               below $20,000

               $20,001–30,000

               $30,001–40,000

               $40,001–50,000

               $50,001–60,000

               $60,001–80,000

               over $80,000

8. Sexual orientation (Check one)

               heterosexual;       bisexual;      homosexual

9. How religious do you think you are? (Check one)

               very religious

               moderately religious

               not religious

   For the remainder of the questions please circle the best answer.

10. How many individuals have you had sexual intercourse with?

    1. none

    2. only one

    3. between two and five

    4. between six and ten

    5. between eleven and twenty

    6. over twenty

11. How many times per week do you usually engage in sexual intercourse?

    1. less than once

    2. between one and two

    3. between three and four

    4. between five and seven

    5. more than seven

12. How often do you experience orgasm during your sexual encounters (does not have to be sexual intercourse)?

    1. never

    2. 1–25% of the time

    3. 26–50% of the time

    4. 51–75% of the time

    5. 76–99% of the time

    6. 100% of the time

       Foreplay is a word that has been used to refer to sexual activity that occurs before intercourse. Afterplay refers to interactions such as hugging, holding, talking, etc. that occur after intercourse. Not all sexual encounters involve sexual intercourse, but foreplay and after- play are defined here because many of the following questions will refer to them.

13. During which of the following phases of a sexual encounter are you most likely to experience an orgasm?

    1. foreplay

    2. sexual intercourse

    3. afterplay

    4. equally in foreplay, intercourse, or afterplay

    5. I don’t experience orgasms in my sexual encounters

14. For women only: If you experience orgasm during foreplay do you usually like to then have intercourse?

    1. yes

    2. no

15. When you engage in sexual intercourse or other intimate sexual acts, which of the following reasons best describes your motivation on most occasions?

    1. I want the physical release

    2. I want to show my love for my partner

    3. I am afraid my partner will leave me if I don’t

16. Which aspect of a sexual experience do you enjoy the most?

    1. foreplay

    2. intercourse

    3. afterplay

17. Which of the following is the most important thing that you could get from a sexual experience?

    1. a feeling of being emotionally close to my partner

    2. the physical release and/or orgasm

    3. a feeling that I am in control of my partner

18. Do you usually want to spend more or less time in foreplay than your partner(s)?

    1. I want to spend more time

    2. I want to spend less time

    3. We want to spend about the same amount of time

19. Do you usually want to spend more or less time in afterplay than your partner(s)?

    1. I want to spend more time

    2. I want to spend less time

    3. We want to spend about the same amount of time

20. When you and your partner(s) disagree on the amount of time that should be spent in foreplay, who is more likely to get his/her way?

    1. I am more likely to get my way

    2. My partner is more likely to get his/her way

    3. We are each likely to get our way half of the time

    4. We don’t disagree

21. When you and your partner(s) disagree on the amount of time that should be spent in afterplay, who is more likely to get his/her way?

    1. I am more likely to get my way

    2. My partner is more likely to get his/her way

    3. We are each likely to get our way half of the time

    4. We don’t disagree

22. When you and your partner(s) disagree on the amount of time that should be spent in foreplay or afterplay do you discuss the problem?

    1. We do communicate our disagreements

    2. We do not communicate our disagreements

    3. We do not disagree on this

23. Which of the following rank orders best describes the importance of the various parts of a sexual encounter to you (the first listed part should be the most important and the last the least important to you)?

    1. foreplay, intercourse, afterplay

    2. intercourse, foreplay, afterplay

    3. afterplay, intercourse, foreplay

    4. foreplay, afterplay, intercourse

    5. intercourse, afterplay, foreplay‌

    6. afterplay, foreplay, intercourse

24. How often do you initiate your sexual encounters?

    1. never

    2. 1–25% of the time

    3. 26–50% of the time

    4. 51–75% of the time

    5. 76–99% of the time

    6. 100% of the time

25. Would you prefer your partner(s) to initiate sexual encounters?

    1. more than she/he does

    2. less than she/he does

    3. the same as she/he does

26. In most cases, do you get more sexually aroused by initiating or being pursued during a sexual encounter?

    1. initiating the encounter

    2. being pursued by my partner

27. What percentage of your sexual encounters would you say you find to be satisfying?

    1. none

       b. 1–25%

       c. 26–50%

       d. 51–75%

       e. 76–99%

       f. 100%

28. How satisfied are you with your typical sexual encounter?

    1. extremely satisfied

    2. moderately satisfied

    3. slightly satisfied

    4. not at all satisfied

29. During which of the three phases (foreplay, intercourse, afterplay) of a sexual encounter are you usually most dissatisfied with how your partner responds?

    1. foreplay

    2. intercourse

    3. afterplay

    4. I am not dissatisfied with any part

30. Have you ever communicated your dissatisfaction to your partner(s)?

    1. yes

    2. no

31. If you are dissatisfied, why are you dissatisfied?                                                            

32. With which of the three phases (foreplay, intercourse, afterplay) are you most satisfied with how your partner responds?

    1. foreplay

    2. intercourse

    3. afterplay

    4. I am not satisfied with any part

33. If you are satisfied, what do you find particularly satisfying?                                           

34. Do you sometimes have sex to please your partner even though you don’t want to have sex?

    1. yes

    2. no

References

1Address correspondence to David Quadagno, Department of Biological Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-2043; e-mail: [email protected]