Validation of the Sexual Desire Inventory for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer adults.

The Sexual Desire Inventory (SDI; Spector, Carey, & Steinberg, 1996) is one of the most popular scales used to measure dyadic and solitary sexual desire. Research on sexual desire has primarily focused on heterosexual cisgender experiences, and the SDI has not been validated in lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, or queer (LGBTQ) populations. To address the dearth of research using the SDI on LGBTQ populations, the primary aim of this study was to examine the internal structure of the SDI by examining and comparing the fit of the original 2-factor structure suggested by Spector et al. (1996) with a 3-factor structure found by Moyano, Vallejo-Medina, & Sierra, (2017) in a sample of LGBTQ adults. The secondary aim of this study was to provide convergent evidence of validity for SDI scores. Findings provide evidence for a 3-factor structure solution of the SDI: (1) dyadic sexual desire for partner, (2) solitary sexual desire, and (3) dyadic sexual desire for attractive other. These findings are consistent with the structure reported by Moyano and colleagues (2017). Convergent validity with the SDI and the Hurlbert Index of Sexual Desire (Apt & Hurlbert, 1992) and Global Measure of Sexual Satisfaction (Lawrance & Byers, 1995) was also established. Results provide new information on the appropriateness of a 3-factor structure for using the SDI in an adult LGBTQ sample. The need for additional research on the SDI is discussed.