Explicit Verbal Sexual Consent Communication: Effects of Gender, Relationship Status, and Type of Sexual Behavior

Abstract

Objectives: College students believe that they are supposed to be explicit and verbal in their sexual consent communication. We examined various contexts to determine when sexual consent is likely to be communicated explicitly and verbally. Method: We surveyed U.S. college students’ (n = 707) sexual consent communication. Results: We identified contexts when explicit verbal consent cues are less likely—when the person is a woman, when the sexual relationship is casual, and when the sexual behavior is not vaginal-penile intercourse. Conclusions: If sexual consent is contextual, that means communicating consent should not ever be taken for granted.

Keywords:

• Sexual consent
• affirmative consent
• sexual communication
• college students

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Dr. Bobbie Ogletree, MCHES, for her assistance with the study design, as well as Bonnie Kempker, CHES, Kara Bell, Shelby Clark, Cameron Goodwin, and Andrew O’Neil for their assistance with data collection and data entry.

Internal Review Board (IRB) statement

The use of human subjects according to the present study's procedure was approved by each institutional review board at the three universities of data collection.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.