Abstract
Our research explores how secondary school students draw on commonly recognised sexual scripts to account for the consent practices of young people. We constructed three vignette variations which described a real-life ‘hook-up’ scenario using ‘status-quo’ scripts related to gender roles, gendered power dynamics, and alcohol consumption. Young people aged 14–17-years were recruited from five secondary schools across the Republic of Ireland. Participants (N = 613) rated their dis/agreement as to whether the vignette variation they were presented with demonstrated sexual consent, and provided written comments to explain their decision. Our findings from this research show that young people have complex, nuanced, and varied understandings of sexual consent. When accounting for sexual consent negotiation, youth drew on sexual scripts that both upheld and troubled a heteronormative binary that responsibilises women and absolves men. We highlight instances where youth responses illuminate possibilities for future pedagogical practices on the topic of sexual consent.
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Notes
P541, for example, indicates the participant ID number.
A naggin in Ireland is a 200 ml bottle of spirits.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank participating schools for agreeing to work with us, parents and caregivers for supporting young people to partake, and especially the young people who took part in this research for giving so generously of their time. We would also like to thank our funders: Lifes2good Foundation, Rethink Ireland, and the University of Galway.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design, material preparation, and data collection. Analyses were performed by the first and second author. The first draft of the manuscript was written by the first author and the authorship team commented on previous versions of the manuscript. The final manuscript was approved by the authorship team.
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Appendix
Appendix
Vignette
Aoife (aged 15) and Martin (aged 16) were both invited to Aoife’s friend’s house. The parents were away for the weekend with an older sister left in charge. Martin and Aoife had not met before. He was there with one of Aoife’s friends. There was a group of friends altogether and each had almost a nagginFootnote 2 of vodka during the evening.
Aoife and Martin started messing around, flirting and chatting. They went outside to be together and Martin started kissing Aoife. Then Martin started to touch Aoife under her top. Martin asked Aoife to go back inside with him to find a private space to be alone. She said OK.
She began to kiss him on the couch. Martin moved his hands onto Aoife’s lower body. Then Martin took her by the hand and brought her to one of the bedrooms.
Smile Push Version
Martin began to touch her intimately; he undid her jeans and began to finger Aoife, then undid his trousers and showed that he wanted Aoife to give him oral sex by pushing her head down a bit.
Aoife looked up, smiled at Martin and then gave him a blow job.
Smile Firm Push Version
He undid her jeans and began to finger Aoife. Then undid his trousers and showed that he wanted Aoife to give him oral sex by pushing her head down firmly. Aoife looked up, smiled at Martin and then gave him a blow job.
No Smile Push Version
Martin began to touch her intimately; he undid her jeans and began to finger Aoife, then undid his trousers and pushed her head down.
Then Aoife gave Martin a blowjob.
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Healy Cullen, S., O’Rourke, T., O’Higgins, S. et al. Using Communication Stories to Explore How Young People Draw on Sexual Scripts When Making Sense of Sexual Consent. Sexuality & Culture 27, 1556–1577 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-023-10078-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-023-10078-y