(PS7-92) Assessing the Validity of the Functional Impairment Post Sexual Assault - Female (FIPSA-F) Scale

The Functional Impairment Post Sexual Assault-Female (FIPSA-F) scale was developed to assess the experience of functional impairment in sexual assault survivors. While there are empirically validated measures available to understand the global measures of functional impairment, they do not assess sexual impairment as a result of sexual trauma. Previous research has shown that little is known regarding the experience of impairment of sexual functioning during and after the remittance of psychological symptoms associated with sexual dysfunction and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) thus limiting the ability to track full treatment improvement beyond global assessments of functioning (e.g., the GAF scale). The FIPSA-F is a 24 item survey that assesses functional impairment through six domains: Sexual Dysfunction, Relationships, Emotional Control Behaviors/Emotional Expression, Deviant/Risky Behaviors, Self-Care, and Emotional Insight. The purpose of this paper is to assess the validity of the FIPSA-F in its relationship to sexual dysfunction disorders (FSDs) from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5 TR (DSM-5-TR), contrasting its effectiveness as a measure compared to the Female Sexual Functioning Index (FSFI).

Participants are being recruited through Mechanical Turk using validity checks including the Attentive Responding Scale (ARS). At the time of submission, the study includes 294 female participants aged 19-78 from the United States.  With non-exclusive identifiers of race/ethnicity, 75.9% of respondents indicated they were White, 9.5% Hispanic, 9.2% Asian, 7.8% Black, 1.4% American Indian, and 0.3% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander. Participants surveys including: Life Event Checklist (LEC), PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5), Female Sexual Functioning Index (FSFI), and the Functional Impairment Post Sexual Assault-Female (FIPSA-F), and a self-report of DSM-5-TR Female Sexual Function Disorder criteria.

The correlation between the scales on the FIPSA-F, FSFI, and the FSDs was assessed. The FIPSA-F scale was significantly (p < .001) correlated with the criteria for Female Orgasmic Disorder (r = .40), Sexual Interest Disorder (r = .38) and Pelvic Pain Disorder (r = .40) and the total number of FSDs (r = .51), whereas the FSFI scale was more inconsistent, with significantly (p < .05) smaller correlations with FOD (r = -.25) and SID (r = -.24) and the total number of FSDs (r = .24), and no significant relationship with PPD. Additionally, the FIPSA-F demonstrated a significantly (p < .001) stronger relation with PTSD symptom (r = .51) than the FSFI (r = .21). Finally, a successful confirmatory factor analysis (54.8% of variance accounted for) will also be presented.

This initial analysis indicates that the FIPSA-F can be considered a valid measure in assessing the degree of functional impairment in females post-sexual assault. Specifically, these findings indicate that the scale is aligned with the diagnostic criteria in the DSM-5 for female sexual dysfunction disorders.

 More analysis needs to be conducted to understand how scores on the  FIPSA-F scale aligning with sexual dysfunction disorders differ from how scores on the measure align with the criteria for PTSD.