Corresponding Author's : Gulgoona Jamal

Co-Author's : Ms. Deshna Jain

Abstract :

The present study assessed the Indian male and female college students’ understanding of “sexual consent” and examined gender differences regarding this understanding. The participants were the college going students from different states of India (Male, n = 38; Female, n = 33). The tests administered on the participants included the two subscales “awareness and discussion” and “sexual consent norms” from “Sexual Consent Scale – Revised” by Humphreys and Brousseau (2010), and the “Process Based Consent Scale” (Glace, Zatkin, & Kaufman, 2020). Results: The understanding of “sexual consent” was low in both male and female college students. While both male and female participants showed low “awareness and discussion”, “ongoing consent”, and “communicative sexuality”, they showed higher agreement with “sexual consent norms” and “subtle coercion”. Further, both male and female college students did not differ significantly in their understanding of “sexual consent”. Conclusion: Both male and female college students showed poor understanding of “sexual consent” and did not differ significantly from each other on it. These findings are supported by the existing research on conservative social structure in India (Waldern et al., 1999; Bhugra, Mehra, de Silva, & Bhintade, 2007; Hindin & Hindin, 2009), “sexual scripts” model (Muehlenhard et al., 2016) and gender inequality (Primoratz, 2001) deeply embedded in Indian society. Little research has been conducted in India on understanding of “sexual consent” among public in the context of personal relationships. Hence, the present study can be seen as an important contribution in this area to examine the concept of “sexual consent” among Indians from different social strata, to spread awareness, and to design intervention programs.

Keywords :

Sexual Consent, Affirmative Model, Sexual Scripts, Sexual Consent Norms, Subtle Coercion, Ongoing Consent, Process-Based Consent

Article Details

Unique Paper ID: 43

Publication Volume & Issue: VOLUME 2 , ISSUE 2

Page(s): 44-57

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