Sexual Desire in Sexual Minority and Majority Women and Men: The Multifaceted Sexual Desire Questionnaire

Abstract

Sexual desire is increasingly understood to be multifaceted and not solely erotically oriented, but measures are still generally unitary and eroticism-focused. Our goals in this article were to explore the multifaceted nature of sexual desire and develop a measure to do so, and to determine how multifaceted sexual desire might be related to gender/sex and sexual orientation/identity. In the development phase, we generated items to form the 65-item Sexual Desire Questionnaire (DESQ). Next, the DESQ was administered to 609 women, 705 men, and 39 non-binary identified participants. Results showed that the DESQ demonstrated high reliability and validity, and that sexual desire was neither unitary nor entirely erotic, but instead was remarkably multifaceted. We also found that multifaceted sexual desire was in part related to social location variables such as gender/sex and sexual orientation/identity. We propose the DESQ as a measure of multifaceted sexual desire that can be used to compare factor themes, total scores, and scores across individual items in diverse groups that take social context into account. Results are discussed in light of how social location variables should be considered when making generalizations about sexual desire, and how conceptualizations of desire as multifaceted may provide important insights.

Appendix: Sexual Desire Questionnaire (DESQ)

Instructions:

For each question, rank your agreement with the following:

When you have experienced sexual desire for a partner, is it generally characterized by a desire to…?

	1 Strongly disagree	2	3	4 Neither agree nor disagree	5	6	7 Strongly agree
1. Experience orgasm	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
2. Give your partner physical pleasure	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
3. Feel wanted/desired	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
4. Be touched	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
5. Have a thrill	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
6. Make your partner feel happy	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
7. Feel dominant/powerful	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8. Experience specific sexual activities	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
9. Feel protected	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
10. Try something new	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
11. Experience companionship	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
12. Feel irresistible	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
13. Relieve stress	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
14. Do something exciting	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
15. Express love for your partner	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
16. Surprise your partner	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
17. Be distracted from some other anxiety-provoking issue	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
18. Act out a sexual fantasy	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
19. Fall asleep	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
20. Alleviate boredom	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
21. Be dominated	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
22. Please your partner	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
23. Impress your partner	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
24. Feel happy	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
25. Make your partner feel emotionally closer to you	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
26. Make your partner feel wanted/desired	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
27. Feel sexually excited or aroused	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
28. Fantasize	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
29. Make your partner feel more secure about your relationship with him/her	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
30. Feel sexually satisfied	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
31. Feel a sense of commitment from your partner	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
32. Be physically close to your partner in a sexual way	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
33. Experience Power/Control	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
34. End craving	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
35. Reconcile with your partner/end a fight	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
36. Feel sexy	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
37. Experience intimacy	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
38. Feel independent and in control of your body	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
39. Show your partner that you care	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
40. Feel cared for	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
41. Be protective	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
42. Touch your partner’s body	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
43. Reproduce	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
44. Feel special	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
45. View erotic films or read an erotic story	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
46. Feel in control of your relationship	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
47. Initiate or maintain a romantic relationship	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
48. Feel loved	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
49. Experience romance	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
50. Feel emotionally closer to your partner	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
51. Make your partner feel that you are committed	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
52. Cuddle with your partner	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
53. See your partner naked	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
54. Boost your self-esteem or feel good about yourself	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
55. Feel more secure about your relationship with your partner	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
56. Relieve tension/frustration	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
57. Experience desire for its own sake/no goal	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
58. Make your partner feel that you are supportive of him/her	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
59. Make yourself feel good	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
60. Avoid conflict with your partner	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
61. Make your partner feel special	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
62. Feel a sense of support from your partner	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
63. Experience physical pleasure	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
64. Grow closer to your partner or develop a stronger connection with him/her	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
65. Experience relaxation	1	2	3	4	5	6	7

66. Can you please identify who you imagined? You do not need to give a specific name; please provide your relation to this person (e.g., relationship partner, famous person, friend, etc.).