College students' perception of sexual consent based on their familiarity with sexual behaviors

Abstract

College students are among the highest risk for experiencing sexual violence/assault. While there are efforts on campuses and in the nation to prevent this, sexual consent communication is also incredibly nuanced.

We conducted a study to determine if a student's sexual behaviors can impact how they communicate sexual consent. We sent a survey out to 5,000 OSU students via email. The survey included one open-ended consent question and data from the consent to sex scale and the NSSHB. From the initial sample, we received 265 fully completed responses for analysis.

We coded the open-ended question responses into multiple groups depending on the thoroughness of responses. Some answers were coded into multiple categories.

We grouped participants into different groups depending on their experience with various sexual behaviors. Then we conducted ANOVAs to determine significant group differences depending on how they would communicate consent.

We found that individuals who reported engaging in anal and VP sex, were more likely to utilize verbal consent cues than those who had only kissed a partner.

We also found that those who reported engaging in anal and VP sex were more likely to utilize initiator cues than individuals who had never engaged in partnered behavior.