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DO SEXUAL CONSENT WORKSHOPS PROMOTE
POSITIVE ATTITUDES TOWARD CONSENT?
Charlotte SILKE
Psychology, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland
Padraig MACNEELA,, Siobhan O’HIGGINS
Psychology, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland
Introduction & Objectives: Reports of sexual assault and aggression on university
campuses appear to be on the rise in recent years. Lack of understanding and misin-
terpretation of sexual consent are often cited as potential contributors to incidents of
sexual aggression. It has been proposed that training around sexual consent can reduce
misperceptions. However, despite the potential benefits, sexual consent remains an
under-researched and under-theorised topic. The current study proposes to examine
whether sexual consent workshops can promote positive attitudes and intentions to-
wards consent among college students, in comparison to an active control condition
who receive traditional sexual health education.
Population Sample: The sample consists of approximately 350 male and female
university students from the Republic of Ireland.
Method: The study employs a randomised-controlled 3 (Time) X 2 (Condition)
design. Participants are allocated to either a sexual consent (experimental) or sexual
health (control) condition. Participants in both conditions take part in a two-hour,
interactive workshop which is delivered by trained facilitators. The primary outcome
measures assess personal attitudes and behavioural intentions toward sexual consent
and are assessed in both groups at baseline (before students participate in the work-
shops), post-test (immediately following completion of the workshop), and at a three-
month follow-up.
Results: Preliminary results indicate that participants in the experimental condition
show significantly greater intentions to engage in verbal consent communication at
Time 2 than at baseline, in comparison to the control condition. As this analysis is
currently ongoing further specific information on Time 2 and Time 3 outcomes will be
presented at the conference.
Conclusion & Recommendations: This study provides knowledge and insight into
the potential effectiveness of sexual consent workshop in promoting positive attitudes
toward consent among third level students.
Keywords: consent, workshops, attitudes
Source of Funding: This research is funded by the Irish Research Council.
Conflict of Interest and Disclosure Statement: None.
A STUDY OF TRENDS OBSERVED IN SELF-
IDENTIFIED ‘ASEXUAL’ PEOPLE
Pragati SINGH
Indian Aces, India
Asexuality as a sexual orientation is defined as a lack of sexual attraction to anyone. The
asexual spectrum also includes ‘gray-asexuality’ defined as lack of sexual attraction
except in rare circumstances. While many sexual orientations are widely studied, much
remains to be understood about asexuality. The objective of this study is to examine
trends and themes in self-identified asexuals.
While there were participants from various countries, the majority of the sample of 280
were formed by USA (104), India (81), UK (24) and Canada (13). The age range
varied from 15 to 58 years. 137 participants identified as females (cis/trans), 78 as
males (cis/trans) and 65 as genderqueer. 110 participants identified as asexuals, while
the remaining 170 fell in the gray-asexual bracket, with 80 hetero-, 45 poly/pan-, 25
bi-, and 20- homo-sexuals.
An online survey was employed for the study, asking participants to identify their
responses to questions from given choices (definitions provided). Space to enter any
other responses was also provided.
The study found that 31% of all participants identified as sex-repulsed in their personal
lives, with an additional 23% who did not prefer penetrative sexual activity. Another
23% were sex-indifferent while only 8% reported to have a sex-seeking behaviour. The
remaining felt their behaviour varied. In their general outlook towards sex, 55% had a
neutral view, 39% were sex-positive, and only 5% sex-negative. A whopping 60%
reported low while 7% reported a high libido.
8 participants reported being diagnosed on the autistic spectrum disorder. All of these 8
also reported a low libido. While 12% of the total reported having a medical/physical
condition, 40% reported being diagnosed with mental conditions such as depression/
23rd Congress of the World Association for Sexual Health
anxiety/PTSD/personality disorders etc. 15% of all reported a history of sexual abuse
with or without PTSD.
Keywords: asexuality, mental health, sexual abuse
Conflict of Interest and Disclosure Statement: None.
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF COMMITTED SEXUAL
JAPANESE-MONOCULTURAL AND JAPANESE-
WESTERN RELATIONSHIPS
Dariusz SKOWRONSKI
Temple University Japan Campus, Japan
John ANDREWS
Temple University Japan Campus, Japan
Introduction & Objectives: Although there are studies on marital satisfaction among
intercultural Western-Japanese couples (Yamamoto, 2010), there is a paucity of
comparative research on the sexual and couple satisfaction in the intercultural and
Japanese monocultural committed relationships (Skowronski at al., 2014).
The objective was to investigate committed sexual Japanese monocultural and Japa-
nese-Western relationships to identify predictors of the sexual and couple satisfaction
based on quantitative and qualitative data.
Population Sample: 48 participants. The data is still being collected so the expected
number of participants will approximately reach 60-70 in total.
Method: A semi-structured interview containing qualitative and quantitative ques-
tions. The interview was administered face-to-face and required approximately 60
minutes for completion.
Findings & discussion
 Reasons for seeking a sexual partner outside of his/her culture: allows changing
perspective of the world and social interactions, the curiosity towards new culture, and
changing perspective on own culture.
 The language spoken in the relationship is not correlated with the communication
difficulties within the relationship.
 While those in Japanese-monocultural relationships tend to favor raising children in
the traditional Japanese fashion, those in cross-cultural relationships prefer raising their
children in a mixed heritage fashion.
 Cross-cultural couple satisfaction average: 4.47/5
Japanese-monocultural couple satisfaction average: 4.8/5
 Cross-cultural Sexual satisfaction average: 4.45/5
Japanese-monocultural sexual satisfaction average: 4.6/5
 The most common factors contributing to conflicts: miscommunication (high vs.
low context culture), interpreting intimacy and child rearing, including negotiating co-
sleeping with their children.
 Most common factors contributing to overall and sexual satisfaction: satisfactory
communication, caring, affection
 Participants with low sexual satisfaction define intimacy more around the specifics of
sex (pleasure and orgasm).
 Results indicated there is no significant difference between monocultural couples and
cross-cultural couples regarding their sexual and overall couple satisfaction.
Recommendations: It is recommended to further investigate couple conflict reso-
lutions strategies in the cross-cultural context.
Keywords: sexual satisfaction, cross-cultural sexuality, mono-cultural sexuality
Conflict of Interest and Disclosure Statement: None.
CONTEMPORARY MASCULINITY AND SEXUALITY
IDENTITIES AMONG YOUNG JAPANESE MEN
Dariusz SKOWRONSKI
Temple University Japan Campus, Japan
John ANDREWS1, Takahiro OGAWA1, Katarzyna WASZYNSKA2
1
Temple University Japan Campus, Japan; 2Adam Mickiewicz University,
Poznan, Poland
Introduction & Objectives: Although there are studies on masculinity in Japan
(Nicolae, 2014; Kumagai, 2013), there is a paucity of research on the sexual expres-
sions and masculine identities among young men in the changing social and psy-
chological context of modern Japanese culture.
J Sex Med 2017;14:e211ee350