Establishing validity in the social sexual awareness scale for adults with developmental disability

The present study seeks to establish data supporting convergent and concurrent validity of the Social Sexual Awareness Scale by correlating SSAS score with current status regarding competency to make the decision to engage in high risk sexual behavior as agreed by the IDT. The premise is that capacity to consent to high risk sexual behavior can be measured in a way that would enhance the decision making process of the court without detracting from its authority. Archival data relating to IQ, adaptive functioning level, guardianship status, absence or presence of a secondary psychiatric diagnosis and previous IDT decisions as to ability to consent to high risk sexual behavior were collected for 51 adult male residents of a developmental center located in southern New Jersey. These data were correlated to the subjects\u27 scores obtained on the Social Sexual Awareness Scale using a Pearson Product-Moment procedure. The data support the validity of the scale