Sexual History and Adjustment Questionnaire

Abstract

The Sexual History and Adjustment Questionnaire (SHAQ), developed by Robin J. Lewis and Louis H. Janda (1988) at Old Dominion University, is a multidimensional psychometric instrument designed to evaluate retrospective childhood experiences related to family sexuality and their relationship with adult psychosexual outcomes. Specifically, the SHAQ systematically measures: (a) retrospective recall of the frequency of exposure to parental and peer nudity during two critical developmental windows (ages 0–5 and 6–11 years); (b) co-sleeping behaviors, specifically the frequency of sharing a bed with parents across early and middle childhood; (c) perceived parental attitudes toward sexuality and open communication regarding sexual topics; (d) familial demonstrations of physical affection and associated discomfort; and (e) self-reported adult sexual adjustment, psychological self-regard, and sexual behaviors. Comprising 30 self-report items across multiple response formats—primarily using 5-point Likert scales with contextualized semantic anchors—the SHAQ provides researchers and clinicians with empirical access to the developmental antecedents of adult sexual health. Psychometric evaluations of the instrument demonstrate robust internal consistency across its theoretically derived subscales, including Parental Nudity (Cronbach’s α = .74), Overall Nudity (α = .77), Parental Bed Sharing (α = .80), Maternal Attitudes (α = .77), Paternal Attitudes (α = .78), and Overall Attitudes (α = .78). By empirically operationalizing childhood domestic boundary dynamics without conflating them with overt pathology or abuse, the SHAQ has served as a foundational methodological tool in sexology, developmental psychopathology, and family systems research.

Keywords

Sexual History and Adjustment Questionnaire, SHAQ, childhood nudity exposure, parental bed sharing, co-sleeping, psychosexual development, parental sexual attitudes, adult sexual adjustment, family boundary dynamics, retrospective assessment

Authors

The Sexual History and Adjustment Questionnaire was conceived, developed, and empirically validated by Robin J. Lewis, Ph.D., and Louis H. Janda, Ph.D. Both investigators conducted this work within the Department of Psychology at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. Robin J. Lewis has extensively contributed to research on human sexuality, gender roles, health psychology, and clinical assessment. Louis H. Janda is a recognized scholar in clinical psychology, psychological testing, and personality assessment, authoring numerous influential assessment texts and psychometric inventories throughout his academic tenure.

Institutional Correspondence:
Robin J. Lewis, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology, Old Dominion University
Norfolk, VA 23529-0267
Email: [email protected]

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Sexual History and Adjustment Questionnaire is to bridge an empirical gap in the literature surrounding the long-term psychological correlates of childhood domestic sexual environment factors that do not constitute sexual abuse. Throughout the mid-to-late 20th century, psychoanalytic theory, family systems paradigms, and clinical case observations repeatedly asserted that practices such as childhood exposure to parental nudity and prolonged co-sleeping in the parental bed exerted pathogenic influences on child development, predisposing individuals to neuroses, boundary confusion, Oedipal fixations, sexual dysfunction, and personality pathology. However, these assertions frequently lacked systematic empirical testing using representative non-clinical samples.

The SHAQ was designed to address this theoretical gap by offering an objective, standardized retrospective inventory that systematically quantifies:

• The frequency of observing maternal, paternal, same-sex peer/sibling, and opposite-sex peer/sibling nudity across two specific developmental epochs: early childhood (ages 0–5) and middle childhood (ages 6–11).
• The frequency of co-sleeping in the parental bed across those same developmental epochs (0–5 and 6–11 years).
• Perceptions of parental comfort and affective valence when discussing sex, capturing maternal and paternal dynamics independently.
• The general family climate regarding physical contact, affection, and subjective feelings of discomfort concerning that contact.
• Current parameters of adult sexual adjustment, including sexual satisfaction, guilt, anxiety, sexual dysfunction, self-esteem, sexual frequency, and contraceptive responsibility.

In research settings, the SHAQ allows investigators to examine whether non-abusive domestic boundary variations correlate with adverse or adaptive adult sexual outcomes. In clinical contexts, such as sex therapy and adult psychodynamic or systemic psychotherapy, the SHAQ serves as a structured intake or assessment instrument. It enables therapists to reconstruct a client’s early psychosexual socialization environment, assess familial sexual openness versus repressiveness, and identify whether current sexual inhibitions, performance anxiety, or relational difficulties stem from restrictive parental messaging rather than domestic boundary practices per se.

Psychological Construct

The SHAQ captures several interconnected psychological constructs related to family boundary dynamics, psychosexual socialization, and adult sexual functioning. These constructs are structured into distinct analytical subscales:

1. Retrospective Childhood Exposure to Nudity

This construct examines an individual’s recollected frequency of visual exposure to human bodies in non-erotic, domestic settings during early (ages 0–5) and middle (ages 6–11) childhood. The construct differentiates between:

• Parental Nudity: Frequency of seeing the mother and father unclothed. This taps into domestic body openness, generational boundary permeability, and the demystification of anatomical differences.
• Peer and Sibling Nudity: Frequency of observing same-sex and opposite-sex peers or siblings without clothes, representing lateral social and familial body transparency.
• Overall Nudity: An aggregate dimensional index capturing general domestic and social bodily exposure across childhood.

2. Childhood Co-Sleeping (Parental Bed Sharing)

This construct reflects the frequency with which a child slept in the parental bed during ages 0–5 and ages 6–11. Historically conceptualized in psychodynamic literature as a potential trigger for Oedipal conflicts or boundary dissolution, the SHAQ measures co-sleeping as a normative continuous variable, allowing empirical investigation into whether physical proximity during sleep relates to later interpersonal attachment, dependency, or sexual functioning.

3. Parental Sexual Attitudes and Communication Climate

This construct measures the communicative and affective environment of the family regarding sexuality. It includes:

• Comfort in Sexual Communication: The respondent’s perceived comfort when discussing sexual matters with each parent, as well as the perceived comfort of the mother and father when addressing sexuality.
• Affective Valence of Parental Attitudes: The degree to which parental attitudes toward sexuality were perceived as positive, supportive, and open versus negative, punitive, or repressive.
• Family Expressiveness and Boundary Discomfort: The overall frequency of physical affection displayed in the family unit and whether that physical contact elicited subjective feelings of discomfort in the child.

4. Adult Sexual Adjustment and Self-Appraisal

The SHAQ operationalizes adult psychosexual adjustment across multiple behavioral and psychological indices. Rather than assuming that high frequency of sexual activity alone constitutes adjustment, the construct evaluates personal satisfaction, absence of debilitating sexual guilt or anxiety, self-esteem, absence of sexual dysfunctions, self-efficacy regarding sexual knowledge, and responsible behavioral practices (such as regular contraceptive use).

Theoretical Framework

The conceptual framework of the SHAQ integrates principles from psychodynamic theory, family systems theory, and social learning theory.

Psychodynamic Formulations of Childhood Sexuality

Classic psychoanalytic formulations, originating with Sigmund Freud, posited that the latency period (approximately ages 6 through puberty) requires a dampening of overt sexual energy to allow cognitive and social consolidation. Traditional analytic theorists argued that seeing parents naked or sleeping in the parental bed during or after the Oedipal transition (ages 3–6) could overstimulate the child’s developing psyche, provoke intense Oedipal rivalries or castration anxieties, and inhibit psychosexual maturation. The SHAQ was explicitly designed to test these hypotheses empirically, asking whether childhood exposure to nudity or bed sharing produced the neurotic guilt, sexual dysfunction, or boundary impairments predicted by classical psychodynamic models.

Family Systems and Structural Boundary Theory

From the perspective of Salvador Minuchin’s structural family therapy, healthy family functioning depends on clear, semi-permeable boundaries between the spousal subsystem and the parental/child subsystem. Diffuse boundaries (enmeshment) are hypothesized to compromise child autonomy. Bed sharing past infancy and excessive parental nudity have sometimes been characterized within clinical family therapy as markers of generational boundary blurring. The SHAQ allows researchers to assess whether these behaviors actually correspond to poor adult adjustment or whether they represent normative, non-pathological variations in cultural and familial physical warmth.

Social Learning and Cognitive Socialization Theory

Albert Bandura’s social cognitive framework suggests that parental modeling, direct verbal instruction, and emotional feedback regarding bodily functions form children’s internal cognitive schemas about sexuality. In this model, restrictive or anxious parental reactions instill guilt, shame, and cognitive avoidance around sexual stimuli, which persist into adulthood as sexual performance anxiety and relational dissatisfaction. Conversely, positive, relaxed parental communication fosters sexual self-efficacy and psychological well-being. The empirical results reported by Lewis and Janda (1988) strongly supported this social learning framework over purely Freudian paradigms: parental attitudes and comfortable communication were robust predictors of adult sexual adjustment, whereas exposure to nudity and bed sharing showed virtually no adverse effects.

Validity

Validation data for the SHAQ stem primarily from the foundational study conducted by Lewis and Janda (1988), published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, along with subsequent investigations in psychosexual development.

Content and Face Validity

The items of the SHAQ were developed by clinical psychologists with expertise in human sexuality. Face validity is high: each item directly inquires about concrete, developmentally bounded behaviors (e.g., seeing mother/father naked during specific age brackets) or explicit attitudes toward sexuality. The developmental differentiation (0–5 versus 6–11 years) aligns with standard developmental milestones, separating preschool/early childhood from the school-age/latency stage.

Construct and Convergent Validity

Construct validity was demonstrated by examining hypothesized intercorrelations among subscales and their predictive relationships with adult adjustment indicators. In their sample of 322 university students (147 males, 175 females), Lewis and Janda (1988) found:

• Parental Nudity and Bed Sharing: In contrast to classical psychoanalytic predictions, frequency of seeing parents naked (ages 0–5 and 6–11) and co-sleeping in the parental bed did not correlate significantly with adult sexual guilt, anxiety, or sexual problems. Instead, mild positive correlations emerged between parental nudity and adult self-esteem and body comfort.
• Parental Attitudes: Maternal and paternal positive attitudes toward sexuality, as well as open communication, demonstrated significant positive correlations with adult sexual satisfaction, overall happiness with sex life, and positive self-regard, while correlating negatively with sexual guilt and anxiety.
• Familial Affection vs. Boundary Discomfort: While general family physical affection correlated positively with adult adjustment, item 30 (discomfort regarding physical affection in the family) correlated significantly with adult sexual guilt, sexual problems, and personal dissatisfaction, demonstrating convergent validity with measures of family dysfunction.

Discriminant Validity and Response Bias

Lewis and Janda (1988) evaluated social desirability response sets using Reynolds’ (1982) short form of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. Correlations between the SHAQ subscales and social desirability were uniformly non-significant or negligible, indicating that retrospective reporting of domestic nudity, bed sharing, and parental sexual attitudes was not substantially confounded by a need for social approval.

Reliability

The reliability of the SHAQ subscales was evaluated through internal consistency analyses (Cronbach’s coefficient alpha) across the primary conceptual domains identified by Lewis and Janda (1988):

• Parental Nudity Subscale (Items 1, 2, 3, 4): α = .74. This subscale sums the reported frequency of seeing mother and father naked across both developmental periods (0–5 and 6–11 years).
• Overall Nudity Subscale (Items 1–8): α = .77. This composite index aggregates exposure to parental, same-sex peer/sibling, and opposite-sex peer/sibling nudity across both developmental periods.
• Parental Bed Subscale (Items 9–10): α = .80. This subscale measures co-sleeping frequency across ages 0–5 and 6–11.
• Maternal Attitudes Subscale (Items 11, 13, 15): α = .77. Comprises the respondent’s comfort talking with mother about sex, perceived maternal comfort, and perceived maternal attitude.
• Paternal Attitudes Subscale (Items 12, 14, 16): α = .78. Comprises comfort talking with father about sex, perceived paternal comfort, and perceived paternal attitude.
• Overall Attitudes Subscale (Items 11–16): α = .78. Aggregates all maternal and paternal attitude and communication items.

No formal test-retest reliability coefficient was published in the original 1988 validation article. However, stability over time for retrospective autobiographical memories of salient domestic practices (such as co-sleeping or parental nudity) is generally considered moderate-to-high in non-clinical adult populations, provided that instructions specifically anchor recall to objective developmental periods.

Factor Analysis

In the developmental psychometric work conducted by Lewis and Janda (1988), subscale construction was derived theoretically based on family roles (maternal vs. paternal), developmental timing (preschool vs. middle childhood), and behavioral categories (nudity, co-sleeping, attitudes, adjustment). Exploratory principal components analyses conducted on the boundary and environmental items (Items 1–19) supported a distinct multi-factor solution:

• Factor 1: Parental Sexual Communication and Affect (Maternal & Paternal). Items 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16 loaded heavily on this dimension (loadings ranging from .62 to .81), accounting for the largest proportion of common variance. This factor captures the emotional climate of openness versus prohibition regarding sexuality in the home.
• Factor 2: Domestic and Familial Nudity Exposure. Items 1 through 8 loaded onto a distinct factor (loadings ranging from .55 to .79), reflecting physical bodily transparency in the household across early and middle childhood.
• Factor 3: Parental Bed Sharing / Co-Sleeping. Items 9 and 10 formed a separate, distinct factor with high loadings (> .80), confirming that sleeping in the parental bed represents an independent behavioral domain from visual exposure to nudity.

The adjustment items (Items 20–29) encompass distinct facets of sexual well-being (satisfaction, guilt, sexual problem presence, activity preference, sexual knowledge) and are typically treated either as separate criterion indicators or summed into an overall index of sexual adjustment after reverse-scoring negative items.

Instrument / Measurement Tool

• Instrument Name: Sexual History and Adjustment Questionnaire (SHAQ)
• Authors: Robin J. Lewis, Ph.D., and Louis H. Janda, Ph.D. (Old Dominion University)
• Publication Year: 1988
• Target Population: Older adolescents and adults (ages 18 and older)
• Total Number of Items: 30 items
• Administration Format: Paper-and-pencil self-report or computer-administered digital survey
• Estimated Completion Time: 10 to 15 minutes
• Item Formats & Response Scales:
  • Items 1–10 (Retrospective Childhood Nudity and Bed Sharing): 5-point Likert scale (1 = almost never, 2 = rarely, 3 = sometimes, 4 = often, 5 = very often)
  • Items 11–14 (Comfort in Sexual Communication): 5-point Likert scale (1 = extreme discomfort, 2 = moderate discomfort, 3 = neither comfort nor discomfort, 4 = moderate comfort, 5 = extreme comfort)
  • Items 15–16 (Parental Attitudes Toward Sexuality): 5-point Likert scale (1 = extremely negative, 2 = moderately negative, 3 = neither positive nor negative, 4 = moderately positive, 5 = extremely positive)
  • Item 17 (Preparation for Sexual Relationships): 5-point Likert scale (1 = not at all, 2 = poorly, 3 = adequately, 4 = pretty well, 5 = very well)
  • Item 18 (Frequency of Sexual Discussions in Home): 5-point Likert scale (1 = almost never, 2 = rarely, 3 = sometimes, 4 = often, 5 = very often)
  • Item 19 (Frequency of Physical Contact/Affection in Family): 5-point Likert scale (1 = almost never, 2 = rarely, 3 = sometimes, 4 = often, 5 = very often)
  • Items 20–29 (Current Sexual Adjustment and Self-Appraisal): 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 2 = somewhat disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 4 = somewhat agree, 5 = strongly agree)
  • Item 30 (Discomfort with Family Physical Contact): 5-point Likert scale (1 = almost never, 2 = rarely, 3 = sometimes, 4 = often, 5 = very often)
• Scoring Procedures:
  • Parental Nudity Subscale: Sum of Items 1, 2, 3, and 4 (Range: 4–20).
  • Overall Nudity Subscale: Sum of Items 1 through 8 (Range: 8–40).
  • Parental Bed Subscale: Sum of Items 9 and 10 (Range: 2–10).
  • Maternal Attitudes Subscale: Sum of Items 11, 13, and 15 (Range: 3–15).
  • Paternal Attitudes Subscale: Sum of Items 12, 14, and 16 (Range: 3–15).
  • Overall Attitudes Subscale: Sum of Items 11 through 16 (Range: 6–30).
  • Individual Criterion Items: Items 17–19 and 20–30 are evaluated individually or combined as specific indices (e.g., sexual guilt/anxiety from Item 21, sexual problem report from Item 26, affection discomfort from Item 30).

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Sexual History and Adjustment Questionnaire was developed in 1988 and published in the peer-reviewed journal Archives of Sexual Behavior by Robin J. Lewis and Louis H. Janda. The instrument is considered an open-access academic measurement tool for non-commercial research and educational applications. No licensing fees are required to administer the scale for non-profit scholarly research. Researchers wishing to reproduce, modify, or use the scale in commercial or clinical diagnostic systems are advised to contact the primary author, Dr. Robin J. Lewis, at Old Dominion University, or seek copyright permission via the publisher (Springer Nature).

References

Lewis, R. J., & Janda, L. H. (1988). The relationship between adult sexual adjustment and childhood experiences regarding exposure to nudity, sleeping in the parental bed, and parental attitudes toward sexuality. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 17(4), 349–362. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01542381

Reynolds, W. M. (1982). Development of reliable and valid short forms of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 38(1), 119–125. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499709551903

Okami, P., Weisner, T., & Olmstead, R. (1998). Outcome correlates of childhood exposure to television and cinema violence, nonviolent television, and parental nudity: A 14-year prospective study. The Journal of Sex Research, 35(4), 361–386. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499809551954

Rosen, R. C., Riley, A., Wagner, G., Osterloh, I. H., Kirkpatrick, J., & Mishra, A. (1997). The International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF): A multidimensional scale for assessment of erectile dysfunction. Urology, 49(6), 822–830. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0090-4295(97)00238-0

13. Items of the Scale (Questionnaire)