How Men Experience Sexual Shame: The Development and Validation of the Male Sexual Shame Scale

This article describes the development and validation of the Male Sexual Shame Scale (MSSS), which was designed to assess the components of sexual shame in men. Data came from two large, diverse, international online samples (n = 870 and n = 1,082). Factor analysis results evidenced six factors of male sexual shame, which yielded six subscales: Sexual Inexperience Distress, Masturbation/Pornography Remorse, Libido Distain, Body Dissatisfaction, Dystonic Sexual-Actualization, and Sexual Performance Insecurity. An additional three independent subscales emerged that were not indicative of sexual shame: Perceived High Libido, Sexual Harassment Stereotype Threat, and Homoerotic Guardedness. A partial confirmatory factor analysis, discriminant validity analysis, concurrent validity analysis, and reliability analyses supported the MSSS’s theoretical framework. Implications for future research are discussed