Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Sex Roles https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-021-01226-5 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Predictors of Sexual Consent Attitudes, Beliefs, and Behaviors Among Sexual Minority Cisgender and Nonbinary Young Adults John L. McKenna 1  · Lizabeth Roemer 2  · Susan M. Orsillo 1 Accepted: 10 June 2021 © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2021 Abstract Sexual assault is a major public health concern in the United States that disproportionately afects sexual minority cisgen- der and nonbinary young adults. Although sexual assault is infuenced by a myriad of societal and interpersonal factors, misunderstandings during the communication and interpretation of sexual consent signals likely contribute to this public health crisis. Unfortunately, research on sexual consent miscommunication has been heavily informed by heteronormative theories and conducted primarily with cisgender heterosexual men and women. The present study attempted to help address this gap in the literature by exploring factors that contribute to sexual consent attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors in a sample of 251 cisgender and nonbinary sexual minority young adults. Nonbinary participants reported more proactive sexual consent attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors than cisgender participants. Sexual assertiveness was also a robust and unique predictor of adaptive sexual consent, particularly among those who identifed as more traditionally masculine. Findings from the current study may help guide the development of more inclusive, research-informed sexual consent and sexual violence prevention programs. Keywords Sexual consent · Sexual assertiveness · Nonbinary · Sexual minority · LGBT Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ +) and nonbinary young adults are at heightened risk to be the vic- tim of sexual assault, with rates of assault among sexual minority men, women, and nonbinary individuals matching or exceeding rates reported by cisgender heterosexual young adult women (Eisenberg et al., 2017; James et al., 2016). Although assault is infuenced by a myriad of contextual, societal, and intrapersonal factors, it is undoubtedly tied to sexual consent, particularly since sexual assault is defned as sexual behavior in the absence of consent (Carmody, 2005; Jozkowski & Peterson, 2013). To date, research on consent has focused on two major areas of study. The frst is examin- ing consent as a behavioral act that can be communicated directly or indirectly through verbal or nonverbal expres- sion of willingness (Hall, 1998; Hickman & Muehlenhard, 1999; Humphreys, 2004; Jozkowski, 2011) and the second is examining the attitudes and beliefs towards consent that may inform these behavioral choices. A particularly novel contribution to this literature was the mixed-method devel- opment of the Sexual Consent Scale (SCS; Humphreys & Herold, 2007) and later revised version (SCS-R; Humphreys, 2013; Humphreys & Brousseau, 2010), which captures both behavioral approaches to and attitudes and beliefs about con- sent negotiation. Despite measurement advances in the area of sexual con- sent research, a notable limitation is that studies have focused exclusively on uncovering gender diferences among cis- gender heterosexual young adults. Broadly, fndings suggest women use more adaptive behaviors and have more cautious and adaptive attitudes and beliefs about consent than men. For example, using the SCS, Humphreys and Herold (2007) found that heterosexual women perceived greater need for consent to be established regardless of relationship length and for consent to be an ongoing process throughout sexual encounters rather than a singular event. In contrast, hetero- sexual men endorsed more beliefs suggesting that partners’ consent could be assumed without direct verbal communi- cation, that consent only needs to be established once at the initiation of sexual activity, and that the need for consent * John L. McKenna johnmckennaphd@gmail.com 1 Department of Psychology, Sufolk University, Boston, MA, USA 2 Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA, USA