Developing Valid and Feasible Measures of Sexual Consent for Experience Sampling Methodology

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.

Assessing the Within-Person Variability of Internal and External Sexual Consent

“…For example, they might select the item(s) with the largest factor loading(s) (Fisher & To, 2012 ). Thus, another strength of the present study was our use of measures that underwent a rigorous development process to ensure their validity (i.e., face, content, convergent, and divergent) and reliability (Willis, Jozkowski et al, 2021 ). Still, these measures may be limited in that (1) although we asked participants at the beginning of the study to only reference sexual activity with their primary partner, we were unable to determine with certainty whether they only reported sexual behavior with that same person during the study period and (2) even though we provided participants with operational definitions, they had to engage in a degree of meta-cognition to identify their sexual consent communication as explicit or implicit.…”

“…I nonverbally communicated my willingness to engage in these sexual behaviors Nonverbal cues These items were designed to assess five types of internal consent feelings and four types of active consent communication. The operational definitions that were used to develop these items are included in Willis, Jozkowski et al ( 2021 ). Participants were provided the operational definitions for these constructs before participating in the study.…”

“…Following recommendations by Willis and Jozkowski ( 2019 ), we used ESM to examine the within-person variability of sexual consent. Using validated measures of sexual consent that are feasible for ESM studies (Willis, Jozkowski et al, 2021 ), we assessed people’s internal consent feelings and external consent communication over a 28-day period. We had two specific research aims in this study.…”

Sexual Consent Perceptions of a Fictional Vignette: A Latent Growth Curve Model

“…Indeed, previous research has found that sexual arousal can influence sexual consent perceptions (Benbouriche et al, 2019 ). Further, experience sampling methodology could be used to assess in-the-moment consent perceptions as has been done with self-reports of internal consent feelings and external consent communication (Willis et al, 2021b ). By collecting daily data on people’s sexual consent perceptions over time, researchers would be able to investigate the trends in people’s lived sexual consent process and examine the contexts in which people’s perceptions of another person’s willingness might be associated with their own experiences or communication of willingness.…”

Testing the Internal Consent Scale for Measurement Invariance Across Women and Men

“…We also included a four-item measure of active sexual consent communication (Willis et al, 2021a). Specifically, these items assessed the extent that participants relied on explicit cues, implicit cues, verbal cues, or nonverbal cues to communicate their willingness to engage in their most recent partnered sexual activity.…”