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”.