Response process validity
Basic response process validity, including participant ability to
comprehend, recall, make a judgement about the recalled information, and
find and select a response to the question, was qualitatively
demonstrated throughout the study. Specifically, participants
universally reported that items were clear and easy to understand and
were observed to appropriately provide answers based on Think-Aloud
data, demonstrating comprehension (Table 3). Occasionally, participants
reported that they were unclear about terms such as “pain” versus
“discomfort” and “vagina” versus “vulva” initially, but understood
the term once seeing its counterpoint in a subsequent question. Because
typically the SexFS Brief would present all questions at once as a
scale, participants would be able to return to a prior question; thus,
changes to the instrument were not felt to be necessary.
Participants did not verbally or nonverbally (i.e. through vocalizations
such as “Hmmm” or pauses) demonstrate difficulty with recall of their
own experiences. They also reported comfort with answering questions
truthfully (judgement/estimation), with several even stating that they
“expected a lot worse”. Similarly, there was minimal difficulty
observed or reported in participants’ ability to select an appropriate
response. However, there were a few participants who mentioned a
preference for more concrete, quantitative answer choices instead of
choices like “Occasionally” and “Some of the time”.