Predictors of Sexual Consent Attitudes,Beliefs, and Behaviors Among Sexual Minority Cisgender and Nonbinary Young Adults

Sexual assault is a major public health concern in the United States that disproportionately affects sexual minority cisgender and nonbinary young adults. Although sexual assault is influenced by a myriad of societal and interpersonal factors, misunderstandings during the communication and interpretation of sexual consent signals likely contribute to this public health crisis. Unfortunately, research on sexual consent miscommunication has been heavily informed by heteronormative theories and conducted primarily with cisgender heterosexual men and women. The present study attempted to help address this gap in the literature by exploring factors that contribute to sexual consent attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors in a sample of 251 cisgender and nonbinary sexual minority young adults. Nonbinary participants reported more proactive sexual consent attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors than cisgender participants. Sexual assertiveness was also a robust and unique predictor of adaptive sexual consent, particularly among those who identified as more traditionally masculine. Findings from the current study may help guide the development of more inclusive, research-informed sexual consent and sexual violence prevention programs.

     

Comprehension of Sexual Consent as a Key Factor in the Perpetration of Sexual Aggression Among College Men

The comprehension of sexual consent is a crucial factor in healthy sexual relationships. This study examined the connection between the understanding of sexual consent and perpetration of sexual aggression. We surveyed 217 heterosexual male college students (M age = 20.9 years) using measures of sexual aggression, comprehension of sexual consent, rape myth acceptance, conformity to masculine norms, peer support of abuse, and attachment to abusive peers. We tested models examining factors related to comprehension of consent and the extent to which comprehension of consent was related to perpetration of sexual aggression. Rape myth acceptance, peer support of abuse, and conformity to masculine norms were found to predict comprehension of consent, which mediated the relationship between the social and cognitive variables and sexual aggression.     

Legal and psychological implications in the assessment of sexual consent in the cognitively impaired population

The question of competency to consent to sexual activity in the cognitively impaired population continues to be a difficult assessment issue. Problems center on inconsistent legal and clinical criteria, current inadequate methods of psychological assessment, and the need to promote basic human rights, while protecting people from harm. The purpose of this study was twofold. First, the problems inherent in the psychological assessment of competency to consent to sexual activity are discussed with an emphasis on problems defining consent competency. Second, the utility of a neuropsychological test battery in assisting with the assessment of the ability to consent to sexual activity was examined. Findings indicated that executive measures of neuropsychological assessment were primarily associated with competency to consent to sexual activity. It is important that these neuropsychological measures were more accurate in categorizing competent and noncompetent individuals than methods currently in use. This suggests that sexual consent assessments in the forensic arena should include neuropsychological testing and that current methods are insufficient.     

Sexual Consent in Heterosexual Relationships: Development of a New Measure

The extensive research on date rape attitudes and experiences has left sexual consent itself largely unexamined. The objective of this study was to develop a measure to assess women’s and men’s attitudes and behaviors regarding sexual consent. Using both focus groups (N = 18) and a mail survey (N = 514) of undergraduate students at a Canadian university, two scales of sexual consent were developed: (1) a Sexual Consent Attitudes Scale, and (2) a Sexual Consent Behaviors Scale. Preliminary psychometric evidence suggested good reliability and validity. As hypothesized, women, more than men, preferred a more cautious approach to sexual consent by stressing the need to obtain consent more explicitly. Multiple regression analyses supported a reciprocal relationship between sexual consent attitudes and sexual consent behaviors.     

The perceived legitimacy of statutory rape laws: the effects of victim age,perpetrator age,and age span

Statutory rape laws are intended to protect minors below the age of consent from engaging in behavior that, although not forceful, may be harmful. Two studies explored how individual judgments of adolescent sexual behavior and statutory rape are affected by victim age, perpetrator age, and the age span between partners. Across studies, respondents were significantly more critical of scenarios depicting younger victims, older perpetrators, and larger age spans between the two. These findings, using indirect measures, suggest that college students believe 16 is an appropriate age of consent and that sexual acts between adolescents who are within 2 years of age should not be criminalized.     

On the limits of sexual ethics: The phenomenology of autassassinophilia

Contemporary liberal discourse advocates tolerance of a diversity of sexual orientations and behaviors, provided that the principle of informed consent can be shown to have been respected. Borrowing an extreme test case used by the sexologist John Money—the reciprocally chosen lust murder pact—this theoretical article examines the limits of liberal ideology for sexual ethics. Using as its illustrative material the case of Sharon Lopatka, a Maryland woman who instigated her own sexual murder in 1996, it demonstrates that the phenomenon of being murdered for pleasure problematizes commonplace assumptions about the legitimacy to consent. The discussion recalls and refreshes existing debates in feminism and the politics of sadomasochism and reads them alongside the rhetoric surrounding the ethics of medically assisted suicide. Consenting to murder for pleasure is revealed as a formulation that exceeds the terms of informed consent as it is currently understood and thereby constitutes an ethical and logical aporia. In a final section, the phenomenology of consensual murder is explored via a reading of the dynamics of sexual activity and passivity in philosophical accounts by Jean-Paul Sartre and Martha Nussbaum, and a fictional text by Muriel Spark.     

Homosexuality, ethics and identity synthesis.

Implicit metaphysical assumptions concerning the nature of sexual orientation are reflected in the language used to frame ethical debates concerning "reorientation" therapies. An alternative metaphysical construal is presented concerning sexual orientation and sexual identity development and synthesis. This alternative construal allows for humility concerning what we know and do not know about sexual orientation, underscores the client's self-determination and autonomy, and demonstrates regard for personal and religious valuative frameworks. Rather than focusing on therapies aimed specifically at sexual reorientation, clinicians would do well to provide clients with informed consent and to facilitate identity development and synthesis in keeping with their clients' requests for professional services.     

Why Some Women Consent to Unwanted Sex With a Dating Partner: Insights from Attachment Theory

Several studies have shown that many college women engage in unwanted sexual activity with a dating partner. However, little research has examined the differences between women who comply with requests for unwanted sexual activity and women who do not. This study utilized an attachment theory framework to investigate individual differences in women's compliant sexual behavior. An ethnically diverse sample of 125 college women who had consented to unwanted sex with a current dating partner completed measures of their attachment style, commitment to their current relationship, perceptions of their partner's commitment, and willingness to consent to unwanted sex in a hypothetical scenario. Results showed that attachment style and commitment perceptions were associated with women's willingness to consent to unwanted sex with a dating partner in the hypothetical scenario and their reasons for this decision. As predicted, anxiously attached women were the most willing to consent to unwanted sex, and they often cited fears that their partner would lose interest in them as reasons for their compliance. Contrary to hypotheses, avoidantly attached women were not the least willing to consent to unwanted sex. They often reported passively complying with a partner's sexual request in order to fulfill relationship obligations. The importance of sexuality to attachment formation in dating relationships and the potential consequences of consenting to unwanted sex are discussed.     

Protecting Sexual Minority Youth from Research Risks: Conflicting Perspectives

We describe the dilemmas we encountered in the informed consent process for an HIV prevention project targeting Black gay, bisexual, and non-gay identified young men. We highlight the complexities of applying informed parental consent procedures to sexual minority youth and identify some of the challenges that researchers who work with sexual minority youth face when they must balance the needs and rights of this population against the needs and rights accorded to parents by federal guidelines for protecting minor participants in research.     

A Realist Sexual Ethics

A very liberal sexual ethics now holds sway in Western culture, such that mutual consent alone is widely seen as morally legitimizing almost any sexual activity between adults. It is further commonly assumed by both philosophers and nonphilosophers that arguing for some alternative to liberal sexual ethics requires appeal to ethical commands specific to some religious tradition or other. The purpose of this paper is to challenge that assumption by suggesting some purely naturalistic and independently‐plausible premises that can be used to argue for a much more conservative system of sexual ethics than is widely accepted today.     

Adolescent autonomy and minors' legal rights: contraception and abortion

During adolescence, dependent children grow into independent and autonomous adults, and it is necessary to make difficult policy judgements about children's rights. Questions that arise include: shoudl minors have the right to work, to marry, to make legal contracts, and to obtain medical care without parental consent; or should parental consent be required by the state in order to protect minors and to preserve parental authority. This discussion focuses upon the area of family planning, a topic of special interest to policymakers because they now face many questions about minor's contraceptive and abortion rights in Congress, in state legislatures, and in the courts. comprehensive response to policy questions about family planning rights for minors would require information about adolescent development, maturity, and autonomy; about teenagers' sexual and contraceptive attitudes and behavior; about the nature of parent-child communication regarding sexual and contraceptive questions; and about politics and values. Many from the legal system want help in answering questions about minors' rights. As little research has been conducted, policymakers can obtain only limited guidance from social scientists. As the policy issue is fundamentally tied to developmental issues, the better the knowledge about the development of cognitive competence, social competence, and autonomy, the easier it will be to make the difficult legal and policy judgements about minor's rights. Regarding minors' access to contraceptives, the situation is somewhat cloudy. There is only 1 state statute that requires parental consent for access to contraceptive medical services, passed in Utah in 1981, and pertaining to services provided with public funds. Yet, common law requires parental consent for any medical treatment (with exceptions for emancipated or mature minors) and "physicians often hesitate to serve young people without first obtaining parental consent because they fear civil liability." The situation is even more cloudy in the case of abortion. The Supreme Court's present position seems to grant emancipated and mature minors access to abortion without a requirement for parental consent or notification, but states may place some requirements for parental involvement upon other minors, as long as these minors have an alternative route to abortion. A thorough search of the literature on adolescent development reveals that the policy questions loom larger than the alternatives. 2 policy alternatives are: to single out a reasonable age below which minors require either parental consent or some form of adult involvement; or treat family planning and fertility control as basic rights which cannot be abridged because of age.     

Tainted therapy and mistaken memory: Avoiding malpractice and preserving evidence with possible adult victims of childhood sexual abuse

Recent malpractice cases reflect increased liability for psychotherapists working with possible adult victims of childhood sexual abuse. These cases have related to recovery of past memory of abuse and the fashion in which the therapist managed the recovery and treatment. Ways in which therapists may harm clients by omission and commission are explored. The emerging lack of clarity between investigative and therapeutic interviews is discussed. False memory is considered in relationship to malpractice liability, standards of care, and attempts to preserve potential evidence. The author proposes written informed consent and investigative interviewing procedures for working with potential memory recovery cases. Formats for general informed consent to psychotherapy for patient record keeping of newly emergent material are appended.     

Recognition,Desire, and Unjust Sex

In this article I will revisit the question of what I term the continuum of heteronormative sexual interactions, that is, the idea that purportedly ethically acceptable heterosexual interactions are conceptually, ethically, and politically associated with instances of sexual violence. Spurred by recent work by psychologist Nicola 11 , I conclude that some of my earlier critiques of Catharine MacKinnon's theoretical linkages between sexual violence and normative heterosex are wanting. In addition, neither MacKinnon's theory nor my critique of it seem up to the task of providing an ethical account of the examples of “unjust sex” that Gavey has described. I come to the conclusion that an ethical analysis of sexual interactions requires a focus on sexual desire, but that desire cannot take on the by now heavily criticized role of consent. Rather than looking for the presence or absence of sexual desire prior to sexual encounters as a kind of ethical certification of them, we ought instead to focus on the efficacy of that sexual desire, that is, its ability (or lack thereof) to shape an encounter in substantial and meaningful ways.     

Sexual Consent and Lying About One’s Self

Despite the acknowledgement of the moral significance of consent there is still much work to be done in determining which specific sexual encounters count as unproblematically consensual. This paper focuses on the impact of deception. It takes up the specific case of deception about one’s self. It may seem obvious that one ought not to lie to a sexual partner about who one is, but determining which features of oneself are most relevant, as well as the lies which it follows would be impermissible to tell, is complicated. It is argued here that deception about one’s morally valenced character traits, those we think of as virtues and vices, are particularly problematic. This is true regardless of whether knowing the truth about those traits would have made a difference to one’s partner’s consent. Attention is then drawn to a range of types of lies that one ought not to tell.     

The Ethics of Sexual Objectification: Autonomy and Consent

It is now a platitude that sexual objectification is wrong. As is often pointed out, however, some objectification seems morally permissible and even quite appealing—as when lovers are so inflamed by passion that they temporarily fail to attend to the complexity and humanity of their partners. Some, such as Nussbaum, have argued that what renders objectification benign is the right sort of relationship between the participants; symmetry, mutuality, and intimacy render objectification less troubling. On this line of thought, pornography, prostitution, and some kinds of casual sex are inherently morally suspect. I argue against this view: what matters is simply respect for autonomy, and whether the objectification is consensual. Intimacy, I explain, can make objectification more morally worrisome rather than less, and symmetry and mutuality are not relevant. The proper political and social context, however, is crucial, since only in its presence can consent be genuine. I defend the consent account against the objection that there is something paradoxical in consenting to objectification, and I conclude that given the right background conditions, there is nothing wrong with anonymous, one‐sided, or just‐for‐pleasure kinds of sexual objectification.     

Sexual Health Research Among Youth Representing Minority Populations: To Waive or Not to Waive Parental Consent

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) significantly burden youth 13–24 years of age in the United States. Directly engaging youth in sexual health research is a public health priority and urgently needed to develop targeted, youth-friendly, and culturally relevant HIV/STI prevention interventions. Controversies arise, however, regarding informed assent and consent, parental permission or consent, and the definition of “child”/“minor” as it relates to medical, legal, and ethical issues. In this article, we describe challenges in the human subjects review processes that were undertaken before beginning an HIV/STI prevention research project with sexually active youth in an urban setting. These findings provide important contextual information to facilitate youth sexual health research and care, and Institutional Review Board approval processes with fewer delays.     

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.

     

Fifty Shades of Sexual Health and BDSM Identity Messaging: A Thematic Analysis of the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Fifty Shades</Emphasis> Series

The Fifty Shades book series is immensely popular, highly sexually explicit, and may offer an opportunity for sexual health education among readers. Past research has examined some of the messaging in the series from a variety of frameworks, but has not examined messages specific to sexual and reproductive health. Utilizing thematic analysis, the current paper aimed to examine the sexual health and BDSM (Bondage, Dominance, Sadism/Submission, Masochism) identity messaging presented within the Fifty Shades series in relation to optimal sexual well-being in the context of partnered sexual relationships. Sexual scenes (n = 44) revealed the following sexual health messages: sexual desire, orgasm, approach and avoidance goals, sexual and intimate communication, consent, contraception, and sexual/physical exploration. Trauma induced stigma and psychopathology were two additional themes identified specific to BDSM identities and practices. The findings are discussed within the context of the current sexuality literature, and opportunities for using the series as sexual health education are explored.