Why humans have sex? – Reloaded. The Hungarian adaptation and short form of Why Have Sex (YSEX?-HSF)

What is it about?

Background and objectives: While sexual motivation in everyday life is especially important, few scientific psychological research deals with it and reliable measurement instruments are only available to a limited extent. Our aim was to make the Hungarian adaptation and develop a short version of Why Have Sex [YSEX? (Meston and Buss, 2007)]. Methods: We followed the methodological procedure of the original authors. A total of 4913 persons (2467 females) participated in three studies. The first study (n = 1149) identifi ed a total of 197 items that decribed various reasons for the sexual contact (intercourse). In the second study (n = 1161) the participants had to rate the frequency with that these reasons have led them to have sex. Principal component analysis yielded 3 principal factors and 24 subfactros. Subfactors of the Personal Goal Attainment principal factor included Seeking novelty, Conformity, Infi delity, Impulsiveness, Revenge, Seeking sensation, Control and power, Boosting self-esteem. Subfactors of the Relational Reasons principal factro included Sexual desire, Commitment, Physical attraction, Relaxation, Intimacy, Excitement, Self-affi rmation, Care, Happiness seeking. Subfactors of Sex As Coping principal factor included Mitigating emotional defi cit, Compulsion and avoidance, Utilitarianism, Coping with relational confl icts, Submissiveness, Coping with partner’s emotional demands, Mate retention. In the third study (n = 1024) participants fi lled out a short version of the questionnaire (YSEX?-HSF) (73 items) and a fi ve factors personality test (BFI) and a sociosexual orientation questionnaire (SOI-R). Results: Signifi cant differences in gender and age were measured in a variety of sexual motivations, which were in line with earlier theories. Individual differences in sexual motivation correalted with certain personality traits and sexual strategies. The factor structure of our questionnaire was different from the original YSEX?, and we found stronger gender and age differences. Conclusions: Our results indicated that YSEX?-HSF is a conciese, reliable, and valid measure of human sexual motivations.

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Why is it important?

The original publication of Cindy M. Meston and David M. Buss – Why humans have sex? (2007 in Archives of Sexual Behavior) – was a very interesting and inspiring reading. Based on the conclusions in the last paragraphs, we made a replication of the original study with the aim to develop a Y-Sex Questionnaire in Hungarian. We strictly followed the methodology that was described in Meston & Buss (2007). Nevertheless, results obtained in our sample are slightly different from theirs. Because our final version of YSEX-H consisted of 144 items, we also developed a short form with 73 items. This short form retained the same factor structure and favorable psychometric properties.

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