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Substance use can occur prior to nonconsensual and consensual sexual activity and affect how sexual consent is communicated and felt. Yet, researchers’ understanding of how substance use relates to these sexual experiences is still developing. Few researchers examine these behaviors among the intersection of sexual minority (SM) identity and gender. The goal of this study was to assess if experiences of nonconsensual and consensual substance-involved sexual activity, consent communication and feelings varied by the intersection of SM identity and identifying as a woman. Participants were recruited from a Prolific Academic panel to complete a survey about their substance use, sexual experiences, and sexual consent. SM persons and SM women reported more nonconsensual and consensual substance involved sexual experiences than heterosexual participants and SM men. Consent communication and feelings did not differ by across groups. Prevention initiatives for substance use and sexual activity may want to take an intersectional approach that addresses why different subgroups are at elevated risk to coalesce these two behaviors. Because consent feelings and communication did not differ by SM identity and gender, consent initiatives should expand their discussion to be inclusive of SM as these initiatives are often presented within a heteronormative framework.

Funding: Funding for the Scottish HBSC Survey was provided by Public Health Scotland (previously, NHS Health Scotland). This work also was supported by the Medical Research Council (MC_UU_00022/1) and the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorate (SPHSU16). This study examined trends in inequalities in health complaints among early adolescents in Scotland from 1998 to 2018. We analysed data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey conducted in Scotland in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018. A self-report questionnaire was administered in schools to a nationally representative sample of 11-, 13-, and 15-year-olds (n = 29,250). Health complaints were measured using a scale comprising four psychological symptoms (feeling low, feeling nervous, irritability and sleep difficulties) and four somatic symptoms (headache, backache, stomachache and dizziness). Socio-economic status was measured using the Family Affluence Scale. Between 1998 and 2018, there were significant increases in the proportion of girls and boys reporting feeling low, feeling nervous, sleep difficulties and backache. Prevalence of the eight individual health complaints was higher among girls and adolescents from lower affluence families. Socio-economic inequalities increased over time, such that declines in mental health were greatest among low affluence adolescents. The data show worsening trends in health complaints among Scottish adolescents between 1998 and 2018, particularly for girls and adolescents from low affluence families. Increasing inequalities in mental health highlight the need to address the underlying social and structural determinants of adolescent mental health. Publisher PDF

This pilot study will evaluate understandability, acceptability and answerability a set of survey items on birth-registered sex, gender identity and sexual orientation among young people aged 13-18 participating in the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC), a World Health Organization collaborative cross-national study of child and adolescent health.

Supplemental Material for Young People’s Sexual Wellbeing: A Qualitative Evidence Synthesis Protocol by Raquel Boso Perez, Ruth Lewis, Jennifer Littlejohn, Malachi Willis, and Kirstin R. Mitchell in International Journal of Qualitative Methods

Background:\ud Sexual assault is a pervasive problem in the UK, and young women are disproportionately affected. We sought to provide an initial account of sexual consent norms in the UK and whether they differ by gender and age.\ud \ud Method:\ud The present study was a secondary analysis of data collected by the Family Planning Association, which conducted an online survey (N = 2003) to assess experiences with, knowledge of, and attitudes toward consent. The sample represented all regions of the UK and spanned ages 14–55.\ud \ud Results:\ud Definitions of sexual consent endorsed by women and older age groups more closely aligned with the tenets of affirmative consent compared with men and younger age groups. Women and older age groups were also more likely to perceive that various nonverbal cues may be used to interpret sexual consent or refusal and were more supportive of people being able to withdraw their sexual consent.\ud \ud Conclusion:\ud Maladaptive sexual consent norms seemed to be prevalent among men and young people in the UK, which may contribute to young women’s elevated risk of experiencing sexual assault. Our findings support the UK’s recent relationships and sex education curriculum that actively promotes healthy sexual consent norms.

Sexual consent refers to people’s internal willingness to engage in sexual activity with another person—as well as their external communication of that willingness. Internal and external sexual consent can vary by type of sexual behavior; however, previous research on sexual consent has primarily only assessed “typical” sexual behaviors like genital touching, oral sex, and vaginal-penile sex without acknowledging people’s sexual diversity. Therefore, we provided an initial account of people’s sexual consent—and lack thereof—for a broader array of sexual behaviors. Because gender and sexual consent are consistently related, we also compared women and men on their experiences of sexual consent for various sexual behaviors. Using an online cross-sectional survey of participants in the United Kingdom and the United States (N = 658, 50.5% women), we examined event-level internal and external sexual consent for an array of sexual behaviors. Women reported significantly lower levels of sexual consent feelings than men for 12 of the 20 sexual behaviors and lower levels of active consent communication for seven of them. Almost a third of participants (31.0%) had experienced at least one of the listed sexual behaviors against their will. Of those, participants on average reported nonconsensual experiences with 3.1 of the 20 types of sexual behavior listed, ranging from 1 to 11. More women reported at least one nonconsensual experience with one of the sexual behaviors assessed compared with men (47.9% versus 22.3%, respectively). We discussed several behavior-specific findings regarding sexual consent and the lack thereof. We also made recommendations for initiatives aimed at promoting healthy sexual consent practices: embrace sexual diversity, emphasize sexual agency, and encourage active consent communication.

Supplemental material, Appendix for The Interaction of Rape Myth Acceptance and Alcohol Intoxication on Bystander Intervention by Kristen N. Jozkowski, Malachi Willis, Lauren E. Hurd, Lindsay S. Ham, Ana J. Bridges and Jacquelyn D. Wiersma-Mosley in Journal of Interpersonal Violence