Developing Valid and Feasible Measures of Sexual Consent for Experience Sampling Methodology

Adults' Understandings and Experiences of the Capacity to Consent to Substance-Involved Sexual Activity

Most research on capacity to consent to substance-involved sex has focused exclusively on the implications of alcohol with little attention given to other or additional psychoactive drugs. This study aimed to explore people's understanding and experiences of the capacity to consent to alcohol- and/or drug-involved sexual activity. UK adults (N = 354) completed an online mixed-methods survey on sexual consent during sober, alcohol- and/or drug-involved sex. Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Themes for capacity to consent were: (1) "There is no normative understanding of substance-involved sexual consent," (2) "Moving beyond the binary of consciousness versus incapacitation" and (3) "Substance-involved sexual decisions are viewed as irresponsible." The findings illustrated that capacity to consent is nuanced and multidimensional, and that people's understandings and experiences of capacity to consent to substance-involved sex are not solely individual, but rather, they are also shaped by their environment. We call for a multidimensional view of capacity to consent, where a standard of "unimpaired," rather than sober, is used and modeled by academics, legislators, and educators.

Sexual Consent Across Diverse Behaviors and Contexts: Gender Differences and Nonconsensual Sexual Experiences

Sexual consent refers to people's internal willingness to engage in sexual activity with another person-as well as their external communication of that willingness. Internal and external sexual consent can vary by type of sexual behavior; however, previous research on sexual consent has primarily only assessed "typical" sexual behaviors such as genital touching, oral sex, and vaginal-penile sex without providing further context or acknowledging people's sexual diversity. Therefore, we provided an initial account of people's sexual consent-and lack thereof-for a broader array of sexual behaviors and contexts in which they occur. Using an online cross-sectional survey of participants in the United Kingdom and the United States (N = 658, 50.5% women), we examined event-level internal and external sexual consent for 20 sexual behaviors or contexts. Women reported significantly lower levels of sexual consent feelings than men for 12 of the 20 sexual behaviors and lower levels of active consent communication for 7 of them. Almost a third of participants (31.0%) had experienced at least one of the listed sexual behaviors against their will. Of those, participants on average reported nonconsensual experiences with 3.1 of the 20 types of sexual behavior listed, ranging from 1 to 11. More women reported at least one nonconsensual experience with one of the sexual behaviors assessed compared with men (47.9% versus 22.3%, respectively). We discussed several behavior-specific findings regarding sexual consent and the lack thereof. We also made recommendations for initiatives aimed at promoting healthy sexual consent practices: embrace sexual diversity, emphasize sexual agency, and encourage active consent communication.

Sexual Modesty in Sexual Expression and Experience: A Scoping Review, 2000 - 2021

Sexual modesty is the social, cultural, interpersonal, and psychological systems - defined by the tenets of Script Theory - that regulate individuals' sexual expression and experience at the social, legal, and interpersonal boundaries of acceptable/not-acceptable, private/public, and personal/social. Almost all aspects of sexual expression and experience are touched by the pervasive modesty standards for sexual communication, sexual display, sexual relations, and sexual behaviors. Sexual modesty influences an array of sexual and reproductive health outcomes. Many aspects of sexual modesty are enforced by legal as well as social, cultural, and religious proscriptions, including social shaming and ostracism as well as corporal and capital punishments. The purpose of this paper is to summarize a diverse literature related to sexual modesty from the years 2000 to 2021 in order to clarify its role in sexual health and sexual wellbeing and to identify directions for new research.

Testing the Internal Consent Scale for Measurement Invariance Across Women and Men

The Internal Consent Scale (ICS) was created to measure feelings associated with a person’s willingness to engage in partnered sexual activity. Although previous studies using the ICS have assessed gender differences, evidence has not been provided to suggest that the ICS functions similarly for women and men. Using data from an online cross-sectional survey of adults (N = 874; 53.1% women), we subjected the 25-item ICS to tests of measurement invariance across gender. We found that only partial measurement invariance was tenable, which indicated that direct comparisons across gender should be interpreted with caution when using the ICS. Therefore, we created a gender-invariant short form. In support of construct validity, we found that this 15-item ICS–Short Form demonstrated similar associations with measures of sexual consent communication as the full 25-item ICS. If researchers aim to compare women and men on internal sexual consent, we recommend using the 15-item ICS–Short Form. Cognitive interviews should be conducted to further understand how women and men might differentially interpret ICS items.

Sexual Consent Perceptions of a Fictional Vignette: A Latent Growth Curve Model

Sexual consent can be conceptualized as a process of accumulating cues that build toward and continue throughout a consensual sexual encounter. How people perceive the cues of others during this process is an important aspect of consent. However, previous research has not investigated the trajectories of people's consent perceptions throughout such a process. Using a novel staggered vignette protocol, we examined participants' (N = 1218; 64.4% female) perceptions of fictional targets' sexual consent at 11 time points. We tested latent growth curve models using multilevel structural equation modeling to examine trajectories in consent perceptions over the course of the vignette. We hypothesized that mean differences and rates of change would be associated with several constructs relevant to sexual consent. We found that initial consent perceptions and trends over the course of the vignette varied by whether the participant was a university student, by an alcohol manipulation in the vignette, by the fictional target's sex, and by type of sexual behavior. Researchers should examine whether our findings on consent perceptions of a fictional vignette extend to people's actual sexual encounters, including potential associations between the three primary aspects of sexual consent: perceptions, feelings, and communication.

Assessing the Within-Person Variability of Internal and External Sexual Consent

Sexual consent is often conceptualized as an internal willingness to engage in sexual activity, which can be communicated externally to a sexual partner. Internal sexual consent comprises feelings of physical response, safety/comfort, arousal, agreement/want, and readiness; external sexual consent includes communication cues that may be explicit or implicit and verbal or nonverbal. Most previous research on sexual consent has focused on between-person differences; little attention has been devoted to examining the within-person variation of sexual consent across time. We conducted a 28-day experience sampling methodology (ESM) study with a sample of adults (N = 113) to assess fluctuations in internal and external sexual consent across a given person's sexual events. We found that more than 50% and up to 80% of the variance in sexual consent scores could be accounted for by within-person variability. The type of sexual behavior participants engaged in during a sexual event predicted their internal and external consent. Further, internal consent feelings predicted external consent communication. Overall, our findings provided initial evidence regarding the extent that situational contexts are relevant for sexual consent. ESM study designs may be used to further investigate the potential contextual, intrapersonal, and interpersonal factors associated with internal and external sexual consent.