Rafael Ballester-Arnal

Jaume I University | UJI · Department of Basic and Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology

Título: Satisfacción sexual en diversas estructuras de relaciones y orientaciones sexuales Palabras claves: diversidad sexual, no-monogamias, satisfacción sexual Introducción Diversas estructuras de relaciones, incluidas las no-monógamas, son cada vez más visibles. A pesar del estigma, se han demostrado ser satisfactorias sexualmente y relaciona...

Introduction The Arizona Sexual Experiences Scale (ASEX) is a brief questionnaire that evaluates five major aspects of sexual function: sex drive, arousal, erectile function/vaginal lubrication, ability to reach orgasm, and satisfaction with orgasm. An advantage of the ASEX is its simplicity and brevity (five items), making it suitable for the scre...

Child sexual abuse (CSA) often has serious implications for the victims. The scientific literature reflects a diversity of sequelae that may appear in the short and long term. Interpersonal difficulties have been shown to be one of the most common consequences. However, studies comparing these sequelae between victims of intra-familial (IF) and ext...

Sexual consent is essential for preventing sexual assault. Research on sexual consent in Spain is hampered by the lack of an appropriate measure. The aim of this study was to translate and assess the psychometric properties of the Sexual Consent Scale–Revised using a sample of 557 Spanish individuals between 18 and 60 years old. An exploratory fact...

Attitudes against lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer individuals, and other sexual and gender minorities (LGBTQ+) refer to prejudices and discriminatory behaviors directed toward LGBTQ+ individuals. This rejection has been associated with poorer mental health among the population who suffer it. In Spain, there are no measures to widely assess...

Family reactions to coming out can affect the mental health of individuals who disclose their sexual orientation or gender identity. Therefore, it is important to have an appropriate tool to assess them. The Perceived Parental Reactions Scale (PPRS) assessed perceived parental reactions to the disclosure of gay, lesbian, or bisexual sexual orientat...

The UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Model and the various psychometric instruments developed and validated based on this model are well established in clinical and research settings. However, evidence regarding the psychometric validity, reliability, and equivalence across multiple countries of residence, languages, or gender identities, including gender...

En la última década el sexting ha emergido como una práctica cada vez más común en la expresión de la sexualidad, especialmente, entre la adolescencia y juventud. Progresivamente, esta tendencia se ha ido integrando de manera significativa en las interacciones sociales y románticas de las personas, independientemente de encontrarse inmersos en una...

La literatura científica ha manifestado que la actitud favorable hacia la violación es uno de los factores explicativos de la violencia sexual, sobre todo hacia la mujer. Sin embargo, los factores que subyacen a este tipo de actitudes han sido poco estudiados en jóvenes en conflicto con la ley. Por tanto, el objetivo principal de esta investigación...

Motivations for pornography use may vary across gender identities, sexual orientations, and geographical regions, warranting examination to promote individual and public health. The aims of this study were to validate the Pornography Use Motivations Scale (PUMS) in a diverse, multicultural sample, and develop a short form (PUMS-8) that can assess a...

Introduction The lockdown, as a measure to stop the spread of COVID-19, has had an impact on different areas of our life, including sexuality. This study aims to analyze its impact on online sexual activities (OSAs) in people who lived in Spain during confinement. Methods This study involved 1448 people aged 18–60 years who were assessed through a...

Pictures with affective content have been extensively used in scientific studies of emotion and sexuality. However, only a few standardized picture sets have been developed that offer explicit images, with most lacking pornographic pictures depicting diverse sexual practices. This study aimed to fill this gap through developing a standardized affec...

Visual sexual stimuli (VSS) are often used to induce affective responses in experimental research, but can also be useful in the assessment and treatment of sexual disorders (e.g., sexual arousal dysfunctions, paraphilic disorders, compulsive sexual behaviors). This systematic literature review of standardized sets containing VSS was conducted by s...

Background. Depression and anxiety are among the most prevalent mental health issues experienced worldwide. However, whereas cross-cultural studies utilize psychometrically valid and reliable scales, fewer can meaningfully compare these conditions across different groups. To address this gap, the current study aimed to psychometrically assess the B...

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the P4 suicide screener in a multinational sample. The primary goal was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the scale and investigate its convergent validity by analyzing its correlation with depression, anxiety, and substance use. Study design: The study design is a cro...

Background The three-item Sexual Distress Scale (SDS-3) has been frequently used to assess distress related to sexuality in public health surveys and research on sexual wellbeing. However, its psychometric properties and measurement invariance across cultural, gender and sexual subgroups have not yet been examined. This multinational study aimed to...

Background and aims Problematic pornography use (PPU) is a common manifestation of the newly introduced Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder diagnosis in the 11th edition of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. Although cultural, gender‐ and sexual orientation‐related differences in sexual behaviors a...

Objective We analyzed adult ADHD symptoms in a cross-cultural context, including investigating the occurrence and potential correlates of adult ADHD and psychometric examination of the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) Screener. Method Our analysis is based on a large-scale research project involving 42 countries (International Sex Survey, N=72,...

In recent years, the number of programs to improve sex education for people with intellectual disabilities has increased. However, in most cases, these programs do not provide any evidence of their impact. In the present study we analyzed the effectiveness of the SALUDIVERSEX affective-sexual education program for people with intellectual disabilit...

Background and aims: Problematic pornography use (PPU) is a common manifestation of the newly introduced Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder diagnosis in the 11th edition of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. Although cultural, gender- and sexual orientation-related differences in sexual behaviors...

Sexual cognitions are an important aspect of sexual well-being for all individuals; however, little is known about the sexual cognitions of autistic individuals. Therefore, our study aimed to explore the diversity, content, and frequencies of positive (PSC) and negative (NSC) sexual cognitions in this population. A total of 332 participants (57.5%...

Background and aims Time perception is a cognitive process involving both the ability to estimate the duration of an event (time estimation, TE) and the subjective perception of its passage (time passage, TP). Studies show that alteration in TE/TP is associated with substance use disorders. However, little is known about the impact of these alterat...

En la formación de profesionales del ámbito sanitario, el desarrollo de las habilidades de comunicación y de las competencias relacionadas con la educación para la salud son dos elementos fundamentales para su futuro desempeño profesional. Desde el Espacio Europeo de Enseñanza Superior (EEES) se insta al profesorado a implementar actividades en el...

La educación universitaria requiere una enseñanza-aprendizaje que potencie tanto la adquisición de competencias técnicas como la capacidad para adaptarlas a los entornos. Dada la corresponsabilidad y el protagonismo que el alumnado juega en este proceso, la incorporación de nuevas metodologías debe integrar su valoración sobre la idoneidad y viabil...

Unwanted exposure (UE) to sexual content may have important consequences on children/adolescents’ psychosexual development. Our objective was to analyze UE to online pornography, parental filter use, type of sexual contents seen, emotional/behavioral reactions, and UE as positive/traumatic experience in Spanish adolescents and to examine these expe...

Understanding affective perceptual processes can further contribute to the explanation of motivation and actions, as well as sexual risk behaviors. Pornography can be considered salient emotional content and is popular, also among females. Yet, the female perspective on pornography has often been overlooked and it remains unclear how individual var...

Introduction: Despite being a widely used screening questionnaire, there is no consensus on the most appropriate measurement model for the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). Furthermore, there have been limited studies on its measurement invariance across cross-cultural subgroups, genders, and sexual orientations. Aims: The present...

Throughout human history, there have been different ways of understanding the relationship between the mind and the body, ultimately giving rise to the biopsychosocial model. This model, together with some changes in the type of the most frequent diseases in society and contributions from other disciplines, is the basis of health psychology. Clinic...

Background: A positive conception of sexuality among people with intellectual disabilities is crucial and relies on several social and interpersonal contexts. The goal of this study is to analyse the interaction and impact of three different contextual groups: individuals with intellectual disabilities, their parents, and professionals working wit...

Background: The impact of the COVID-19 on the well-being of people with intellectual disabilities (PID) has been little studied. Methods: We analyzed its impact with a cohort study quantitatively analyzing anxiety, depression, organic symptoms, quality of life, and support needs in 24 PID, aged 19-74 years (x¯ 40, σ = 13.09), living in a residen...

Background and aims: Despite the inclusion of Compulsive Sexual Behavior (CSB) as a diagnostic entity in the ICD-11 and the increasing number of studies addressing psychological factors leading to its onset and maintenance, little is known about the role of hormonal factors when accounting for this clinical condition (especially in women). This st...

Individuals with intellectual disabilities need an affective and sexual education adapted to their characteristics. There are few interventions that meet these objectives and offer empirical evidence of their efficacy. To respond to the limitations of existing interventions, an evidence-based affective-sexual educational intervention for adults wit...

Background: The pandemic affected the psychological well-being and sexuality of the population, especially among vulnerable groups such as men from sexual minorities. Method: In Spain, a total of 320 heterosexual men and 151 sexual minority men, aged between 18 and 60, answered an ad hoc online questionnaire about sexual behavior during the lock...

La vida afectivo-sexual en la adolescencia está en constante evolución. En este sentido, hoy en día se continúa luchando por una educación sexual desde edades tempranas. Sin embargo, aunque los avances sean notables, esta educación sexual no es tan frecuente en las aulas ni de forma individualizada. Por este motivo, el estudio busca analizar difere...

El sexismo es definido como una actitud de animadversión y discriminación dirigida hacia las personas en base a su categoría sexual o género, sustentando las relaciones de desigualdad entre hombres y mujeres. Glick y Fiske (1996), en su teoría del sexismo ambivalente, lo conceptualizan como un constructo bidimensional conformado por el sexismo host...

Introducción: La adicción al cibersexo es un término que carece de consenso en cuanto a su clasificación y criterios diagnósticos. El desconocimiento sobre este trastorno lleva a estigmatizar a las personas que lo padecen considerando, en el mejor de los casos, que su adicción estaría generalizada a toda su sexualidad. Objetivo: Analizar el perfil...

La literatura científica recoge un amplio número de investigaciones que destacan el impacto del maltrato infantil, incluyendo el abuso sexual infantil (ASI), sobre la salud mental. Sin embargo, los estudios que exploran y relacionan estas variables en muestras de adolescentes en medidas judiciales todavía son escasos. Por ello, el objetivo principa...

El siglo XXI ha venido cargado de avances tecnológicos. Uno de los más relevantes han sido las redes sociales. Dichas aplicaciones pueden poner a los usuarios más jóvenes en situaciones potencialmente peligrosas si no se usan de forma apropiada para su edad. Para este trabajo, pedimos a 250 adolescentes (50% chicas) de entre 12 y 16 años que nos in...

The Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) is an instrument to screen substance use-related health risks. However, little is known whether the ASSIST could be further shortened while remaining psychometrically sound across different countries, languages, gender identities, and sexual orientation-based groups. The study a...

Background and aims: Despite its inclusion in the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases, there is a virtual paucity of high-quality scientific evidence about compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD), especially in underrepresented and underserved populations. Therefore, we comprehensively examined CSBD across 42 countries,...

Professionals in charge of designing individualized plans for children and adolescents in the child welfare system often lack the necessary information, either because it has not been systematically collected or because there are doubts about the reliability of the data obtained. The lack of consensual and validated instruments that gather the nece...

Sexuality education is a part of the health education process in schools. However, many programs of sexuality education do not consider the needs of children and adolescents. This study is based on an analysis of the interests of children and adolescents about sexuality. The sample covered 32 classes from primary school to higher education in the n...

Attentional inhibitory control (AIC) is responsible for ignoring salient yet irrelevant stimuli (i.e., distractors) to focus cognitive resources on goal-oriented demands. While the relevance of this cognitive process is well established when it comes to explaining the etiopathogenesis of substance use disorders, few studies have investigated AIC in...

Despite the recognition of compulsive sexual behavior (CSB) as a diagnostic entity in the ICD-11, few works have reported on its natural course. The aim of this study was to explore the natural course of CSB over a 1-year period, as well as to analyze the predictive power of different risk factors. A convenience sample of 154 young adults were asse...

Adolescents in the child welfare system have been exposed to multiple forms of victimization, most notably sexual victimization, many times underreported and misreported. The main aim of this study was to explore the lifetime prevalence of sexual victimization among adolescents in residential care in Eastern Spain, contrasting self-reported informa...

The COVID-19 pandemic may have exacerbated the sexual health differences that already existed among women based on their sexual orientation. Therefore, a total of 971 Spanish women aged 18-60 years (84 % heterosexual and 16 % with a minority sexual orientation) answered an ad hoc online questionnaire about sexual behavior during April 2020. Compare...

La asexualidad es una de las orientaciones sexuales que ha emergido en las últimas décadas, por lo que aún existe mucha desinformación al respecto. Según Bogaert (2015), la asexualidad engloba a personas que no sienten atracción sexual. Pero eso no significa que se trate de un trastorno sexual de bajo deseo, ya que las personas asexuales no sienten...

Las personas con una orientación sexual minoritaria deben afrontar una serie de procesos estresantes, como la salida del armario, las agresiones u otros tipos de discriminación. Estas experiencias se ven agravadas en el caso de personas con orientaciones sexuales emergentes y menos conocidas, como las personas asexuales, demisexuales o pansexuales...

Introduction Personal characteristics have been shown to influence the psychosexual development of people with intellectual disabilities. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the SALUDIVERSEX program about affective-sexual education depending on gender, age, relationship status, and degree of autonomy. Methods Two hundred fifty-four pa...

High levels of perfectionism in college students can compromise their academic performance and psychological well-being. This study aims to analyze the implication of perfectionism in psychological well-being and suicidal ideation in the last year. A total of 1.287 students from different degrees reported their academic performance in the previous...

Self-efficacy seems to be one of the most important resources for the different stages underlying condom use and STI prevention. For this reason, this study evaluates trends in self-efficacy by gender, from 2004 to 2008, 2013 and 2020 in Spain. Throughout these years, 6,698 people ranging from 17 to 40 years old, participated filling the Brief scal...

La vuelta a la presencialidad en el aula después de la pandemia por la Covid-19 supone un reto para el profesorado, quien debe valorar en qué medida las estrategias de aprendizaje presenciales continúan siendo viables tras los cambios generados por los entornos online de enseñanza-aprendizaje. Por este motivo, el objetivo del estudio ha sido evalua...

Desde el Espacio Europeo de Enseñanza Superior (EEES) se establece la importancia de adoptar un enfoque constructivista, proactivo y participativo en los procesos de enseñanza-aprendizaje, en los que el alumnado asuma un rol protagónico, también en los sistemas de evaluación. Así, resulta esencial implementar nuevas metodologías y herramientas de e...

En el contexto universitario, se propone que un buen clima de trabajo puede fomentar mejores resultados de aprendizaje y mayor satisfacción con los mismos. Esto resultaría especialmente relevante en los estudios del ámbito sanitario, donde el trabajo en equipos interdisciplinares es protagonista y, por tanto, la capacidad para trabajar en grupo y c...

Adolescents in the child welfare system often face multiple maladaptive experiences that predispose them to worse sexual health outcomes. This study aims to (1) describe the sexual health of adolescents in Spanish residential care by exploring their sexual knowledge, attitudes toward sexuality, and sexual behaviors and (2) to find out whether there...

Recently, with the increase in demand, multiple intervention proposals aimed at improving the sexual health of people with intellectual disabilities have emerged. Among them is the SALUDIVERSEX program, which takes a positive approach to sexuality. It has an extended version, consisting of 16 sessions and whose efficacy has already been proven, and...

The Sexual Compulsivity Scale (SCS) has been translated, adapted and validated in general Spanish population, making its application difficult in certain groups, such as men who have sex with men (MSM). This paper evaluates the psychometric properties of the SCS in a sample of MSM in Spain. The SCS was administered to 881 participants. The factoria...

Background: Resilience has been associated with greater adherence to treatment, better outcomes, and improved quality of life (QOL) in people with chronic health conditions. This study aimed to identify sociodemographic, treatment accessibility related, clinical, and psychological variables associated with resilience in advanced chronic kidney dis...

Sexuality has been censored by Spanish culture, where legal progress in the form of new policies about sexual diversity rights has not been followed by lower levels of social discrimination. This has affected sexual development across the lifespan for both sexual minorities and heterosexual people who experience their sexuality outside of heteronor...

El dolor crónico y los tratamientos asociados pueden afectar negativamente el funcionamiento y la satisfacción sexual. El presente estudio tiene como objetivo evaluar si existen diferencias en algunos componentes de la sexualidad entre adultos mayores con y sin diagnóstico de dolor crónico. La muestra estuvo compuesta por 132 estudiantes de la Univ...

The scientific community has systematically ignored the needs of women who have sex with women (WSW). The invisibilization of romantic and sexual relationships between women has caused a profound lack of knowledge about the impact of HIV and other STIs on this population subgroup. This study aims to analyze the frequency of dental dam and condom us...

La percepción del tiempo, y más concretamente, la estimación de su duración podría verse alterada en diferentes adicciones conductuales. Esto es lo que sucedería en la adicción a videojuegos. Entre otros factores, la alteración en la estimación temporal podría deberse al grado de disfrute que generan estos contenidos. La mayoría de estudios se han...

HIV exposure is one of the greatest sexual risks in young people, and condom use is the best protective measure. Despite the preventive efforts, trend in condom use is still unclear. This study examines the trend of condom use by gender in Spanish young people, in different sexual practices (vaginal, oral and anal), relationships (regular and casua...

Introduction In Spain, the sexual route is the main route of transmission in new HIV diagnoses. Men who have heterosexual relations are the second group with the highest incidence of new HIV cases and have the highest rates of late diagnosis in Spain. Planning the response to the HIV epidemic requires specific and updated information on this group....

Introduction Pornography consumption has increased exponentially in recent decades. Most studies conducted so far are focused on adult samples (typically, between 18 and 30 years old), limiting the generalizability of their results. This study aims to create a taxonomy that groups various pornographic contents and thus explore different aspects of...

The link between Compulsive Sexual Behavior (CSB) and atypical sexual interests is elusive. This study aimed to provide preliminary insights into the relationship between both aspects. The study sample comprised 61 self-identified straight men. CSB was measured through a composite self-report index assessing symptoms of CSB, whereas sexual interest...

El sexismo se define como una actitud discriminatoria dirigida hacia las personas en virtud de su pertenencia a un determinado sexo biológico, y, por tanto, las actitudes sexistas constituyen el eje principal sobre el que se mantienen las relaciones de desigualdad entre hombres y mujeres. Así, es importante tener en cuenta que, aunque en los países...

Introducción: La literatura ha mostrado cómo el estrés percibido favorece las conductas de riesgo y, en concreto, el consumo de sustancias adictivas. Sin embargo, muchos estudios presentan limitaciones al basar sus resultados en autoinformes que aluden al pasado y no establecen diferencias de género. Objetivo: comprobar si el estrés diario percibid...

Chronic pain represents one of the main health public problems worldwide and significantly affects the sexual life of patients. However, no specific instruments of evaluation have been found that address this population. This study presents the SEX-PAIN Questionnaire, developed for identifying chronic pain’s interference with sexual functioning amo...

Introducción: El uso de internet con fines sexuales es una práctica cada vez más generalizada. Diferentes estudios muestran la asociación entre el uso de actividades sexuales online (ASO) y efectos adversos como el desarrollo de patrones de consumo disfuncionales y conductas sexuales de riesgo. Se ha postulado que su uso y los motivos asociados pu...

Introducción: Los jóvenes que cometen delitos sexuales (JDS) constituyen un grupo heterogéneo y tal diversidad debe ser tomada en consideración para poder atender a las distintas necesidades criminógenas que presentan. Objetivo: Analizar el estado de la cuestión respecto a las distintas clasificaciones de JDS propuestas y los criterios utilizados p...

Background The prevention of HIV or other STIs in people with intellectual disabilities (ID) is a rarely studied subject even though this population group is at the same risk of infection as the general population. Aims The present study aims to conduct a descriptive analysis of sexual behaviours and condom use frequency in Spanish men and women w...

La salud sexual de los/as adolescentes y jóvenes suele mirarse desde una lente que se enfoca en los problemas. En el caso de los adolescentes que están en el sistema de protección infantil este análisis centrado en los riesgos es mayor si cabe, dado que experimentan tasas más altas de resultados negativos de salud sexual. La presente revisión tiene...

El consumo de alcohol es una práctica muy extendida en nuestra sociedad, pese a sus nocivas consecuencias (intoxicaciones etílicas, accidentes de tráfico, reyertas, ITS, etc.). Aunque sus efectos afectan a toda la población, con independencia del género o la edad, las estrategias preventivas no siempre tienen en cuenta dicha diversidad; aspecto que...

Una de las principales motivaciones para consumir cibersexo es conocer a otras personas con fines románticas y/o sexuales. Parece que el género podría ser importante a la hora de modular la realización de este tipo de Actividad Sexual Online (ASO); sin embargo, los datos son escasos y no siempre apuntan a la misma dirección. Así mismo, tampoco se h...