The purpose of this research was to develop a brief self-report index of male sexual functioning, which could be comparable in form and in content to the Brief Index of Sexual Functioning for Women (BISF-W, Taylor et al. 1994).

The study also presented an evaluation of the psychometric properties of the resulting measure, the Brief Index of Sexual Functioning for Men (BISF-M).

The sample was made up of 190 Italian men. It was compared with a sample of 1332 Italian women (Panzeri et al.2004). An Exploratory Factorial Analysis (EFA) was performed with the method of principal components and OBLIMIN rotation. Internal consistency was calculated by means of Cronbach alpha coefficients for each factor. MANCOVAs were calculated to compare menʼs and womenʼs scores.

EFA on menʼs data yielded 4 factors: Sexuality of the couple (F1); Self-eroticism (F2); Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction (F3); Anal sexuality (F4), confirming the same factor structure of BISF-W, even if with some item-level gender variations. Internal consistency was also demonstrated. Cronbach alpha results (.94 for F1; .89 for F2; .75 for F3; .83 for F4) attested a good degree of homogeneity among the items. MANCOVAs revealed that men had higher scores than women on many sexual function dimensions, such as sexual fantasies, desires and self-eroticism.

This research provided a validation of the BISF-M as an instrument for evaluating male sexual function. The study pointed out a globally similar factor structure for men and women and confirmed gender differences in sexual interests, attitudes and behaviour, already described in prior literature.