The Same Yet Different: Refocusing the Sexual Addiction Screening Test (SAST) to Reflect Orientation and Gender
Abstract
In 1988, the Sexual Addiction Screening Test (SAST) was described as an early assessment tool for clinicians to use with patients who manifested sexually compulsive behavior. Early research acknowledged that while the SAST was very useful with heterosexual males, it did not do well with women or homosexual men. There were subsequent efforts to create instruments with “SAST- like” architecture for women and homosexual men. Called the W-SAST and the G-SAST, these instruments had little research to support their clinical utility. This article describes the development of a new version of the SAST (SAST-R) which is designed to be clinically relevant across populations. Item selection was based on a clinical population of inpatient sex addicts (N = 1604), as well as various contrasting populations. The new instrument has core items that show potential to be viable across gender and orientation. The addition of research scales should help resolve the issues around one instrument serving different populations. Preliminary studies using four separate samples of men, and three separate samples of women, are described which point to further research efforts.
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The SAST-R showed adequate psychometric performance in clinical and non-clinical groups of men and women of different sexual orientations.
“The SAST-R demonstrated adequate psychometric properties in clinical and non-clinical samples of men and women across sexual orientations (Carnes et al., 2010).”
From Exploring Gender Differences in the Relationship Between Dispositional Mindfulness and Compulsive Sexual Behavior Among Adults in Residential Substance Use Treatment (2019) · cites this paper as Carnes et al., 2010
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- Authors
- Carnes, P., Green, B., & Carnes, S.
- Affiliations
- a Gentle Path Program, Pine Grove Behavioral Health and Addiction Services ,
- University of Southern Mississippi (US)
- c The Palm Beach Institute , West Palm Beach, Florida
- Venue
- Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2010-03-04
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 7-30
- ISSN
- 1072-0162 (ISSN-L)
- 1532-5318
- OpenAlex
- W1988050768
- Cited by
- 244
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 63 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 21 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 5.89
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity The Journal of Treatment and Prevention (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Gambling Behavior and Treatments
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Sex work and related issues
- Keywords
- gender differences, sexual orientation, women, gay men, item selection, research scale, instrument development
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