TY - JOUR PY - 2024// TI - Sexual victimization, emotion dysregulation, and sexual consent feelings and communication during a recent sexual encounter JO - Journal of sex research A1 - Walsh, Kate A1 - Lowe, Sarah R. A1 - Ward, Stephanie SP - ePub EP - ePub VL - ePub IS - ePub N2 - Sexual consent has been a major focus of campus campaigns to reduce sexual violence (SV). However, these campaigns often educate students about consent with little attention to the complex ways consent can be experienced, expressed, and interpreted by others. Further, little research has focused on the consent feelings and communication cues of students who have a history of SV, nor have studies examined how the ability to attend to and regulate emotions relates to internal feelings or external communication of consent. This secondary analysis examined SV histories, emotion dysregulation, and internal and external consent cues in a sample of 610 college students (72% women) who completed an online self-report survey.

FINDINGS revealed that students with SV histories (n = 257) reported greater emotion dysregulation, lower internal consent, and greater use of passive external consent cues compared to students without SV histories; greater emotion dysregulation was associated with lower internal consent. In a path model, SV history was indirectly related to use of direct nonverbal and passive consent cues through greater emotion dysregulation and lower internal consent. Contrary to expectations, higher internal consent was associated with greater use of passive external consent cues. Consent programming could be augmented to encourage attention to and regulation of emotions in sexual situations to improve communication and sexual well-being.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0022-4499 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2024.2368044 ID - ref1 ER -