Abstract
ABSTRACT Preliminary evidence indicates that people’s sexual consent (i.e., their willingness to engage in sexual activity and communication of that willingness) varies across time and context. Study designs that assess sexual consent at multiple time points (e.g., experience sampling methodology [ESM]) are needed to better understand the within-person variability of sexual consent. However, extant validated measures of sexual consent are not appropriate for ESM studies, which require shorter assessments due to the increased burden this methodology has on participants. As such, the goal of the present study was to develop ESM measures of sexual consent based on items that have previously been validated for use in cross-sectional surveys. We selected items that balanced face validity as evidenced by cognitive interviews (n = 10) and content validity as evidenced by experts’ ratings (n = 6). To assess the construct validity and feasibility of these items, we administered the selected ESM measures of sexual consent in a seven-day pilot study (n = 12). The results suggested that the ESM measures developed in the present study were a valid and feasible assessment of people’s experience-specific internal consent feelings and external consent communication. We conclude with recommendations for sex researchers interested in ESM.
Highlights
Variability of Sexual ConsentIn the academic literature, there are two primary defini tions of sexual consent (Hickman & Muehlenhard, 1999; Muehlenhard et al, 2016)
Regarding within-person variability, we found that each pilot participant who reported multiple partnered sexual events during the study period oscillated in their internal consent feelings and external consent communication
We supported theories that internal consent feelings are related to sexual satisfaction (Marcantonio et al, 2020) and that exter nal consent communication is associated with sexual initiation (Muehlenhard et al, 2016)
Summary
Variability of Sexual ConsentIn the academic literature, there are two primary defini tions of sexual consent (Hickman & Muehlenhard, 1999; Muehlenhard et al, 2016). Sexual consent has been conceptualized as an internal feeling of willingness to engage in sexual activity. A second definition indicates that sexual consent constitutes the use of words or beha viors to communicate to another person agreement to engage in sexual activity; signals might be explicit or implicit. Based on these conceptual definitions, measures have been developed and validated to assess the various types of internal consent feelings and external consent communication (e.g., the Internal and External Consent Scales; Jozkowski et al, 2014). We sought to develop valid measures of sexual consent that would be appropriate for experience sampling methodology (ESM)
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