Associations between sexual precedent and sexual compliance: An event-level examination

Abstract

Objective Most studies on agreeing to unwanted sex have assessed sexual encounters between people who have had sex before. Thus, we examined instances of sexual compliance with a novel sexual partner. Participants: A probability sample of college students at a university in the Midwest United States (N = 7,112). Methods: Participants completed an online survey based on measures from the National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior. Results: Only 2.5% (n = 179) agreed to unwanted sexual activity at their most recent sexual encounter. People who were sexually compliant with a novel sexual partner frequently did so due to their own alcohol intoxication. Further, sexual compliance with novel sexual partners was less frequently associated with affectionate sexual behaviors or orgasm. Conclusions: Our initial findings regarding the effect of sexual precedent on sexual compliance warrant further research on instances when people agree to sex they don’t want with novel partners.

Keywords:

• Probability sample
• sexual compliance
• sexual precedent
• unwanted sex

Additional information

Funding

The authors are grateful to the Indiana University School of Public Health for an internal grant in support of this research.