Ricerc@Sapienza

Objectives: The literature highlights a significant role of automatic
thoughts, sexual beliefs and cognitive schemas as risk
factors triggering and maintaining sexual disfunctions. The aim
of this study was to summarize the evidences highlighted in the
validation studies of the Italian versions of the “Sexual Modes
Questionnaire (SMQ)”, the “Sexual Dysfunctional Beliefs
Questionnaire (SDBQ)”, and the “Questionnaire of Cognitive
Schema Activation in Sexual Context (QCSASC)” for the clinical
practice.
Material and Method(s): The results from three validation
studies on 1051 participants (425 men and 626 women) are
presented, focusing on clinical implications. The questionnaires
assess different classes of cognitions related to sexuality, such as
failure and erection concerns, age and body thoughts, erotic
fantasies, attitudes towards sexuality, conservatism, occidental
gender stereotypic roles and control over sexuality. Questionnaires
ability to discriminate between sexually clinical and
healthy people and the association between cognitive facets,
emotions (measured by the “Positive and Negative Affect
Schedule”), and sexual functioning (using the “IIEF/FSFI”) were
explored.
Result(s): The Italian versions of SMQ, SBDQ and QCSASC
demonstrated good psychometric properties. Results showed that
these questionnaires can differentiate between sexually clinical
and healthy people and that many cognitions evaluated are
clearly gender specific: “Erection Concerns”, “Worries about
Partner’s evaluation and Failure Anticipation thoughts” and
“Macho Beliefs” for men; “Failure and Disengagement
Thoughts” and “Age related Beliefs” for women. “Control over
sexuality”, feeling “Helpless” and “Unlovable” were highlighted
as important risk factors, without any gender difference. A strong
association between cognitions, emotions and sexual functioning
was also reported.
Conclusion(s): Our findings confirmed that cognitive aspects
have a primary role on sexual health. The strong association with
sexual functioning and emotions confirmed the need to operate
under an integrated approach, considering cognitive, emotional
and sexual aspect all together to elicit an effective improvement
during the therapeutic process. These questionnaires are suggested
for assessment and therapy evaluation. In research, they
are useful to study psychosocial aspects of sexuality and can be
implemented in multicultural studies.
Disclosure: Work supported by industry: no.