Language of love?: Verbal versus implied consent at first sexual intercourse and implications for sexual health

Background: Despite substantial research on sexual debut, little is known about the ways in which young people communicate -- or fail to communicate -- about whether and how to initiate intercourse.

Methods: We analyzed data from a cross-sectional survey of students from four universities, limiting the sample to non-Hispanic White and Black students only (N=1883). Respondents were asked if their first intercourse experience was verbally consensual, nonverbally but implied consensual, non-consensual, or if they could not remember. Chi-square tests and logistic regression gauged associations between verbal and nonverbal consent, contraceptive use, and covariates (age, partner's age, religiosity, guilt, etc.).

Results: Overall, among those with consensual first intercourse experiences, half (49%) provided non-verbal consent. Black men were the most likely to provide non-verbal consent (61%), followed by White men (55%), Black women (51%), and White women (43%). Those students who used condoms at first sex were more likely to provide nonverbal consent, suggesting that condoms sometimes served as a proxy for consent. However, even when controlling for covariates, those who provided nonverbal versus verbal consent were significantly less likely to have used contraception at first intercourse. Notably, different factors predicted non-verbal consent among distinct race and gender groups.

Conclusions: A strikingly large proportion of young people consented nonverbally versus verbally at first sex, and those who did were significantly less likely to have used contraception. These findings underscore the need for instruction in sexual communication skills among young people. Public health practitioners should assess for type of consent in future research and programming, with sensitivity to gender and racial influences.