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In the United States, legislation intended to limit abortion access based on fetal development markers (e.g., heartbeat, fetal pain) has become increasingly common. We found that people’s support for legal abortion decreases when survey items mention fetal developmental markers compared with items that do not. However, the majority of participants supported access to legal abortion in health-related circumstances or pregnancies as a result of rape at the detection of a fetal heartbeat. Using terms that personify the fetus may evoke responses from participants that limit their endorsement of abortion. Thus, including this terminology in the public and political discourse seems to influence abortion attitudes. This might have implications related to electoral outcomes which eventually determine whether pregnant people are guaranteed access to abortion.

The Illinois-Rape Myth Acceptance-Short Form (IRMA-SF) is a widely used scale measuring people’s endorsement of rape myths. However, it uses heavily gendered wording and makes gender-based assumptions that may affect its generalizability to various subgroups of people, including sexual and gender minorities who may view gender constructs outside of the heteronormative gender binary. This study validates the psychometric properties of a modified form of the IRMA-SF that is gender inclusive. Participants were adults with a range of sexual orientations and gender identities. Two sets of data were merged and then the sample was randomly split with a 20/80 weight. Data in the 20% split were used for exploratory factor analyses. Data in the 80% split were used for confirmatory factor analyses. According to the exploratory factor analysis, we found a theoretically predicted one-factor model was best (41% variance explained). Further, we found acceptable absolute model fit according to the confirmatory factor analysis (RMSEA = .07, p < .001; SRMR = .06) but unsatisfactory incremental fit (CFI = .82). These model issues were likely due to a floor-effect of low item variability which may call into question the utility of this scale in determining differences in rape myth acceptance overall. Overwhelmingly, participants in this study rejected rape myths. Researchers should explore the use of gender inclusive wording with an updated rape myth scale for use with sexual and gender minorities and, perhaps the general population, as some of these statements may be lacking in cultural relevance.

BACKGROUND Abortion attitudes have historically been dichotomized labels, yet research suggests these labels do not appropriately encapsulate abortion beliefs. Qualitative data has also been shown to underpin belief systems about abortion. Social media, as a form of qualitative data, could reveal how abortion attitudes depart from the dichotomy. OBJECTIVE This study applies Natural Language Processing and social media mining to analyze Reddit forums specific to abortion, including to identify potential themes within the data and predict affect from each post. METHODS We applied the following methods to analyze and visualize (n=5,128) posts scraped from Reddit: (1) term frequency inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) calculations (to assess term frequency), (2) k-means clustering (to group like words and phrases into themes), and (3) principal components analysis (PCA) (to visualize our data). We also applied a sentiment analysis to determine affect in our data. RESULTS Our analyses revealed six clusters: (1) Complex Abortion Beliefs (n=1,566); (2) Abortion Decision Making (n=1,162); (3) Defining Abortion Identity Labels (1,022); (4) Medication Abortion (n=746); (5) Asking for Advice (n=604); and (6) Reddit Forum Rules and Regulations (n=38). Sentiment scores were negative, indicating poor affect. CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest people posting on Reddit abortion forums are willing to share their beliefs, which manifested in diverse ways including sharing one’s abortion story (and how their worldview changed), critiquing the value of dichotomized abortion identity labels, and information seeking. Collectively, our findings suggest abortion views do not always align with pro-choice and pro-life labels but mired in complexity.

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent that alcohol consumption affected participants’ perceptions of their own and their friend’s ability to consent to sex in a non-bar drinking environment. We interviewed 176 people at tailgates in dyads about their own and their friends’ alcohol consumption, intoxication symptoms, and ability to consent. Participants reported consuming a mean of 4.6 drinks and had a breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) of .075 on average, but few thought they or their friend had diminished cognitive function. Accordingly, 92.6% indicated they could consent to sex and 81.8% indicated their friend could consent to sex. Number of drinks people reported consuming, self-reported intoxication levels and symptoms, and BrACs were not significantly related to participants’ perceptions of their own or their friends’ ability to consent to sex. However, gender pairing of the dyad was significant; those in man–man pairs were more likely than those in woman–woman pairs to indicate their friend could consent and they would allow their friend to have sex if approached by an interested party. Participants also indicated that they did not perceive themselves or their friends to be “too intoxicated” as common reasons why they believed they and their friend could consent. Because alcohol-facilitated sexual assault is common among college students, we recommend sexual assault prevention educators focus on raising awareness regarding alcohol’s negative cognitive effects, particularly related to consent communication.

This study examines knowledge of and attitudes toward Roe v. Wade among a sample of 779 US Latinx adults. Survey response patterns were examined in relation to generational status and choice of survey language as well as to several demographic variables previously shown to influence abortion attitudes (e.g., age, religiosity, political affiliation). Differences were found in knowledge of Roe v. Wade by generational status and survey language, with those with higher generational statuses and those taking the survey in English exhibiting greater knowledge. Finally, greater knowledge of Roe v. Wade and choosing to take the survey in English predicted more positive attitudes toward Roe v. Wade controlling for other demographic variables; no effect on attitudes of generational status was observed. These findings contribute to our understanding of abortion attitudes among US Latinxs as well as the relationship between political socialization, knowledge, and attitudes toward social issues.

The relationship between people’s attitudes toward abortion acceptability and the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, two distinct but related issues, has not been rigorously explored. Using a mixed methods approach, we analyzed in-depth interviews to better understand how participants’ feelings toward abortion acceptability are related to perceptions of whether abortion should be legal. Then, we assessed (i) correlations between abortion acceptability and different measures of support for Roe v. Wade (ii) how the phrasing of survey items related to Roe v. Wade may evoke different responses via online surveys fielded in 2018. Our qualitative results highlight that there is a disjuncture between people’s moral feelings toward abortion and their attitudes toward abortion legality. Our quantitative results further demonstrate that correlations between abortion acceptability and support for Roe v. Wade are not strong, but rather moderate, and the differences in responses to the phrasing of survey items related to Roe v. Wade are moderated by knowledge. When developing survey items, we recommend researchers avoid ambiguities of abortion as a general construct, especially when public opinion measures on abortion are employed for research and the design of social and health policy and practice.

Sexism and racism in academia have contributed to women and people of color being underrepresented at increasing levels of the academic hierarchy. We investigated whether people with socially marginalized identities experience disparities regarding rates of publishing and inclusion in the scientific-review process. Using a sample of academics in psychology departments at research-focused universities in the United States (n = 885), we found gender disparities for PhD holders and racial/ethnic disparities for graduate students. Specifically, female PhD holders and graduate students of color reported fewer publications and were less likely to be included in the scientific-review process compared with male PhD holders and White graduate students, respectively. Differences in research activity by gender and race/ethnicity in a contemporary sample of psychologists reflected a 'leaky pipeline' that persists in psychology departments

Sexual assault is prevalent and may be even more prevalent among sexual minorities. However, prevalence rates vary, in part, due to discrepancies in sampling methods. Given this, we assessed whether two popular non-probability sampling types (panel quota vs. social media recruitment) produced different sexual assault prevalence rates when holding all other methodological choices (definitions, measures, scoring) constant in a sample of lesbian, bisexual, queer, and heterosexual adults, excluding cisgender men. Two phases of data collection occurred—a panel quota sample ( n = 1366), recruited from an online sample aggregator, and social media sample ( n = 1102), recruited through lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) social media sites. Participants were asked about sexual assault and rape experiences in both childhood and adulthood using a modified form of the Sexual Experiences Scale-Short Form Victimization. Both phases used the same definitions of sexual assault, prevalence measures, and prevalence scoring. Overall, the sample recruited via LGBTQ social media yielded statistically higher sexual assault prevalence rates for all four types of victimization experiences measured: lifetime sexual assault (LSA), rape-specific LSA, childhood sexual assault (CSA), and adulthood sexual assault. However, when parsing out subgroups, this finding only held for heterosexual participants who had rates > 30% higher in the social media sample compared with the panel quota sample. These findings suggest that researchers studying sexual assault in lesbian, bisexual, or queer adults may be able to use social media sampling techniques, which require less resources, without concern that the sampling technique is inflating prevalence when compared to panels.

Public reaction to Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States initially centered around abortion. However, approximately two months after the nomination, sexual assault accusations against Kavanaugh were made public. We examined the extent that people's perceptions of Kavanaugh's stance on abortion and people's attitudes toward whether Kavanaugh committed sexual assault were associated with perceptions of Kavanaugh as a good Supreme Court justice. Data were collected from English- and Spanish-speaking participants (

Previous research indicates that abortion attitudes may vary across different contexts, such as the reason for abortion and gestational age of the pregnancy. To expand on these findings, we examine...

Abortion restrictions diminish access and perpetuate hostility toward abortion seekers. Support for restrictions is high, but at the same time, understanding of restrictions is low. We evaluated the effectiveness of a video intervention designed to increase knowledge of abortion restrictions in Arkansas and evaluated whether hearing a person’s abortion experience changed their support for restrictions. Using a pre-test, post-test, and follow-up design, we randomly assigned a convenience sample of Arkansas residents (N = 369) to view one of two video conditions, either information on abortion legislation only or information followed by an abortion testimonial, in 2018. We compared knowledge of abortion restrictions (KAR) and support for abortion restrictions (SAR) across time with repeated-measures analyses of variance and McNemar’s tests. Knowledge increased over time for both groups and was higher among testimonial-watching participants. The 20-week abortion ban, counseling on “abortion pill reversal,” and 48-hour waiting period yielded the largest knowledge gains for both groups. Support decreased slightly over time but did not differ by video condition. Combined information and testimonial videos were effective in increasing awareness of Arkansas abortion restrictions, potentially because of repeated information or emotional connections, making the information more memorable. Endorsement of restrictions remained high in the sample. Participants in this sample did not seem to interpret abortion restrictions as burdensome, even after being given information in the video, and ended up simultaneously supporting choice to have an abortion and the policies that restrict access.

Although debate remains about the saliency and relevance of pro-choice and pro-life labels (as abortion belief indicators), they have been consistently used for decades to broadly designate abortion identity. However, clear labels are less apparent in other languages (e.g., Spanish). Social media, as an exploratory data science tool, can be leveraged to identify the presence and popularity of online abortion identity labels and how they are contextualized online.This study aims to determine how popularly used Spanish-language pro-choice and pro-life identity labels are contextualized online.We used Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic models, an unsupervised natural language processing (NLP) application, to generate themes about Spanish language tweets categorized by Spanish abortion identity labels: (1) proelección (pro-choice); (2) derecho a decidir (right to choose); (3) proaborto (pro-abortion); (4) provida (pro-life); (5) antiaborto (anti-abortion); and (6) derecho a vivir (right to life). We manually reviewed themes for each identity label to assess scope.All six identity labels included in our analysis contained some references to abortion. However, several labels were not exclusive to abortion. Proelección (pro-choice), for example, contained several themes related to ongoing presidential elections.No singular Spanish abortion identity label encapsulates abortion beliefs; however, there are several viable options. Just as the debate remains ongoing about pro-choice and pro-life as accurate indicators of abortion beliefs in English, we must also consider that identity is more complex than binary labels in Spanish.

Different types of sexual victimization are associated with different outcomes; for example, on average, physically forced sex is associated with worse psychological outcomes than verbally coerced sex. This study evaluated outcomes associated with sexual victimization as a function of sexual act and aggressive tactic, expanding upon the acts and tactics examined in prior studies. Participants who had experienced sexual victimization (

Sexual consent is a multidimensional construct that requires the participation of all involved in a sexual encounter; however, previous research has almost exclusively relied on one person’s perspective. To address this, we collected open- and closed-ended data on sexual consent from 37 dyads in committed sexual relationships (N = 74). We found that relationship length was associated with sexual consent and couples who accurately perceived each other’s consent communication cues reported elevated levels of internal consent feelings. Communicating willingness to engage in sexual activity remains important even within committed relationships. Preliminary findings suggest that further investigations of dyadic nuances of sexual consent are warranted.

College students engage in consensual sexual activity after consuming alcohol, perhaps because they feel confident to do so. However,232 college students completed a survey assessing alcohol and sexual activity.Gender, Greek life involvement, and drinking behaviors were related to confidence to consent; open-ended responses suggested students had their own norms for combining consent and alcohol.Students were confident consenting to sex after consuming alcohol. Sexual assault prevention educators may consider focusing on misunderstandings surrounding alcohol's effects on people's ability to consent.

Objectives We explored public opinion about using telemedicine to provide medication abortion during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. We also investigated the associations between socio-demographic characteristics and support for using telemedicine in this context and explored factors that influenced respondents’ attitudes on the topic. Study design In a nationally representative, web-based survey of US adults (n = 711), we asked open- and closed-ended questions about using telemedicine to prescribe medication abortion during COVID-19. We used multinomial logistic regression to assess the relationship between socio-demographic characteristics, endorsement of abortion labels, and political affiliation and support for telemedicine in this circumstance. Then, we conducted content and thematic analyses with the open-ended data to explore what influenced respondents’ opinions. Results Overall, 332 (44%) of respondents supported using telemedicine for medication abortion during the pandemic; 237 (35%) opposed and 138 (21%) were unsure. Respondents who identified as prochoice were more likely to support using telemedicine for abortion during the pandemic than those who identified as prolife were to oppose it in this context (RRR 2.95; 95% CI 1.31–6.64). Via our content and thematic analysis, we identified that concerns about safety, the legitimacy of telemedicine, and the belief that abortion should occur as early in the pregnancy as possible influenced respondents’ beliefs about using telemedicine for medication abortion. Conclusions More respondents supported using telemedicine for medication abortion during COVID-19 than opposed it. Among respondents who expressed support, most thought that medication abortion was safe and that telemedicine was equivalent to the in-person provision of care. Implications There appears to be support among US adults for the provision of medication abortion via telemedicine during COVID-19. Policymakers may consider public sentiment as well as clinical evidence when considering legislation about abortion.

Objective The mechanism of action (MOA) of emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs) is frequently mischaracterized. Our objective was to identify how members of the general public understand the mechanisms of ECPs. Study design We recruited a convenience sample from social media for a survey about reproductive health attitudes and analyzed spontaneous descriptions of how ECPs work. We inductively coded responses to create themes and subthemes, and collapsed subthemes into three MOA categories based on previous research. Results Among 1443 respondents, 533 mentioned an MOA in their description of ECPs. While nearly half of these responses (49.5%) stated that ECPs prevent pregnancy before fertilization occurs (in accordance with most biomedical ECP research), over 60% described a mechanism related to preventing implantation of a fertilized egg. Nine percent of responses described a postimplantation mechanism that would be considered abortion by mainstream medical standards. Some respondents conveyed significant confusion about the biological processes involved with pregnancy and pregnancy prevention. Conclusion Confusion about how ECPs work was common among our sample. The largest group of responses described a mechanism—preventing implantation of a fertilized egg—listed on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved ECP labels that does not reflect most relevant biomedical research. Mischaracterizations of ECPs’ mechanisms have been used to limit access to EC. These misunderstandings were common in our sample and may reflect poor quality sex education and public information, and confusion introduced by the FDA-approved labels. Additional research should identify whether public perception of ECPs’ mechanisms influences policy, health care provision, and use of ECPs.

With the recent changes to the composition of the Supreme Court in the USA, speculation that Roe v. Wade may be overturned abounds. Research assessing people’s knowledge and sentiment toward Roe v. Wade is limited. As such, we assessed the relationship between knowledge and sentiment regarding Roe v. Wade and whether the relationship is moderated by political affiliation and abortion identity (e.g., “pro-life,” “pro-choice”). In 2018, after Justice Brett Kavanaugh was nominated to the Supreme Court, we distributed an online survey to a quota-based sample of English- and Spanish-speaking adults in the USA. Roe v. Wade knowledge was significantly related to sentiment; higher knowledge was generally associated with greater support for upholding Roe v. Wade. However, both political affiliation and abortion identity moderated this relationship. Specifically, higher baseline knowledge was associated with lower sentiment scores among those identifying as Republican and “pro-life.” Those who identified as neither or both “pro-life” and “pro-choice” and Independents responded similarly to those who identified as pro-choice and Democrats, respectively. Roe v. Wade knowledge is associated with sentiment; this relationship is moderated by political affiliation and abortion identity. People in subgroups without a clear stance on abortion (e.g., Independents; people who identify as neither or both “pro-life” and “pro-choice”) seem to hold sentiments similar to those more supportive of abortion (e.g., Democrats, “pro-choice”). In addition to other data, policymakers should consult comprehensive assessments of constituents’ attitudes toward Roe v. Wade when making decisions about abortion and reproductive health issues.

The Internal Consent Scale (ICS) was created to measure feelings associated with a person’s willingness to engage in partnered sexual activity. Although previous studies using the ICS have assessed gender differences, evidence has not been provided to suggest that the ICS functions similarly for women and men. Using data from an online cross-sectional survey of adults (N = 874; 53.1% women), we subjected the 25-item ICS to tests of measurement invariance across gender. We found that only partial measurement invariance was tenable, which indicated that direct comparisons across gender should be interpreted with caution when using the ICS. Therefore, we created a gender-invariant short form. In support of construct validity, we found that this 15-item ICS–Short Form demonstrated similar associations with measures of sexual consent communication as the full 25-item ICS. If researchers aim to compare women and men on internal sexual consent, we recommend using the 15-item ICS–Short Form. Cognitive interviews should be conducted to further understand how women and men might differentially interpret ICS items.

OBJECTIVE: High rates of alcohol-related sexual assault among young adults represent a significant public health problem. Bystander intervention programs are a promising strategy to reduce sexual assault incidence. However, little is known about how bystander intoxication may modify bystander intervention effectiveness. We examined the role of bystander intoxication and intoxication levels of the hypothetical victim and perpetrator on outcomes associated with Latané and Darley’s (1970) steps of bystander intervention, which include noticing a situation, assessment of risk and need for intervention, taking personal responsibility for intervening, and selecting an intervention. METHOD: In a field setting, participants were recruited from a downtown area surrounded by several drinking establishments. After providing informed consent, 327 participants (45% women) ages 21 – 29 years listened to one of four sexual assault vignettes (varied by victim and perpetrator intoxication), responded to questionnaires assessing outcomes related to steps of bystander intervention, and completed a field breathalyzer test to measure intoxication level. RESULTS: We found that increased participant intoxication was related to decreased accuracy of situation recall and assessment of risk and need for intervention, but not ratings of personal responsibility to intervene, chosen intervention strategy, or confidence to intervene. CONCLUSIONS: Intoxication could influence how a bystander interprets a hypothetical nonconsensual sexual interaction at the level of accurate situation recall and risk assessment. If the early steps of information processing are impaired by intoxication, later steps of intervention enactment may not occur successfully. Bystander intervention programming may consider incorporating training to overcome the impairing effects of intoxication for identifying harmful situations and choosing to intervene.

Alcohol's effects on bystander responses to potential sexual assault situations are understudied. In this mixed-methods study, we examined quality of bystander responses in intoxicated versus sober people. Participants were 121 young adults (ages 21–29, 50% female) randomly assigned to consume alcoholic beverages or soda water. After drinking, participants listened to a sexual assault vignette and completed a semistructured interview assessing how they would respond if they had witnessed the situation. Nearly all participants reported they would directly intervene if faced with the situation. Intoxicated participants and men were significantly less likely to use high-quality bystander intervention strategies than were sober participants and women. Results suggest that alcohol intoxication may negatively impact the likelihood that bystander intervention efforts will be helpful.

We investigated whether the context of first-time intercourse (FTI) was associated with internal consent feelings and external consent communication at FTI. College students (n = 1020) from univers...

Perceiving potential indicators of a person’s willingness is an integral component of sexual consent. Preliminary qualitative evidence using vignettes suggested that consent perceptions can change over the course of a sexual scenario. In the present study, we extended previous research by directly comparing momentary and retrospective sexual consent perceptions using a quantitative study design. Employing a staggered vignette protocol, we examined participants’ (n = 962; 72.0% female) momentary perceptions of fictional characters’ sexual consent and compared them with participants’ retrospective perceptions of the characters’ consent. We hypothesized that participants would demonstrate a hindsight bias in that they would retrospectively indicate they thought the fictional characters were first willing to engage in sexual behavior earlier than when they did momentarily. We found that differences in participants’ momentary versus retrospective perceptions of characters’ sexual consent varied by the type of behavior. As we expected, participants demonstrated a hindsight bias for making out. Contrary to our hypothesis, participants were hesitant to retrospectively report that the characters were willing to engage in the other sexual behaviors (e.g., oral, vaginal, anal sex) at a point earlier than their momentary perceptions. That momentary and retrospective sexual consent perceptions significantly differ corroborates previous recommendations that sexual consent be conceptualized as an ongoing process.

Sexual consent can be conceptualized as a process of accumulating cues that build toward and continue throughout a consensual sexual encounter. How people perceive the cues of others during this process is an important aspect of consent. However, previous research has not investigated the trajectories of people’s consent perceptions throughout such a process. Using a novel staggered vignette protocol, we examined participants’ (N = 1218; 64.4% female) perceptions of fictional targets’ sexual consent at 11 time points. We tested latent growth curve models using multilevel structural equation modeling to examine trajectories in consent perceptions over the course of the vignette. We hypothesized that mean differences and rates of change would be associated with several constructs relevant to sexual consent. We found that initial consent perceptions and trends over the course of the vignette varied by whether the participant was a university student, by an alcohol manipulation in the vignette, by the fictional target’s sex, and by type of sexual behavior. Researchers should examine whether our findings on consent perceptions of a fictional vignette extend to people’s actual sexual encounters, including potential associations between the three primary aspects of sexual consent: perceptions, feelings, and communication.

Background. The purpose of this study was to explore the underlying behavioral beliefs, normative beliefs, and control beliefs about e-cigarette use among college students using the Reasoned Action...

In preliminary studies, behaviours, actions, and cues occurring in social settings (e.g., bars or parties), including the transition to a private setting (e.g., going home together), have been iden...

People communicate their sexual consent using cues that are explicit or implicit and verbal or nonverbal; implicit or nonverbal consent cues are the most common strategies. As a sexual educator, mass media may provide young people with models of sexual consent that are inconsistent with the explicit verbal cues endorsed by some legal and educational advocates. Guided by Social Cognitive Theory, we examined the effects of film rating on how mainstream films model sexual consent communication and on whether they positively reinforce implicit or nonverbal consent cues. We conducted a content analysis of popular films from 2013 (n = 49) using a codebook that was developed with an inductive process and demonstrated strong inter-rater reliability. Films rated PG-13 depicted characters that were younger than those in films rated R. Further, films rated R more frequently modeled sexual behavior without any preceding consent communication cues. All films tended to rely on implicit or nonverbal models of consent communication; however, these cues were more frequently positively reinforced with consensual sexual behaviors in films rated PG-13 than in those rated R. Because young people are primarily exposed to implicit or nonverbal sexual consent cues in films, they may continue to adopt these types of communication—despite efforts from formal sexual educators to encourage explicit verbal consent cues.

Objective: Most studies on agreeing to unwanted sex have assessed sexual encounters between people who have had sex before. Thus, we examined instances of sexual compliance with a novel sexual part...

According to data from the General Social Survey (GSS), abortion attitudes have remained relatively stable since 1972. Despite this apparent stability, some researchers argue abortion opinions have become increasingly polarized, particularly among certain subgroups. Others argue people’s attitudes toward abortion are complex and nuanced; that is, people may feel conflicted or ambivalent about abortion in certain contexts. To better understand this issue, we examined complexity and polarization in people’s attitudes toward abortion using GSS data from 1972 until 2018 (n = 44,302). The GSS includes six items assessing whether it should be possible for “a pregnant woman to obtain a legal abortion” under specific circumstances. Using these items, we created an aggregate complexity measure. Negative binomial, Poisson, and logistic regression models were tested to assess potential changes in complexity and polarization over time among demographic subgroups. Findings indicate changes in complexity across political party affiliations, religious identity, and age groups. However, any significant differences among these demographic subgroups are lost once polarized scores are removed. That is, changes in complexity are driven largely by more people supporting access to abortion in all or no situations; among those who remain conflicted, there has been little change in complexity. These findings provide a more nuanced assessment of trends in abortion attitudes. Given the saliency of this issue, we recommend researchers consider alternative mechanisms to assess abortion attitudes. These nuanced assessments of abortion attitudes should be considered when determining the congruence between abortion legislation and public opinion.