“When You’re in a Relationship,You Say No,but Your Partner Insists”: Sexual Dating Violence and Ambiguity Among Girls and Young Women

Abstract

Sexual dating violence (DV) is highly prevalent and associated with deleterious outcomes. Unfortunately, this form of violence remains poorly understood. Furthermore, the measures used to assess sexual DV may not account for the various manifestations of sexual DV, which limits our understanding of this problem. This study aimed to (a) explore how girls and young women describe their experiences of sexual DV and (b) explore whether the taxonomy on intimate partner sexual violence developed by Bagwell-Gray and colleagues could be applicable to girls and young women’s experiences of sexual DV. A total of 71 adolescent girls and young women who identified themselves as heterosexual were recruited. Sexual DV was assessed using an adapted version of the Sexual Experiences Survey, followed by a semistructured interview. Findings revealed that 29.6% of participants reported sexual DV victimization in the past 12 months. A direct content analysis was performed based on the taxonomy of Bagwell-Gray and colleagues. Four manifestations of sexual DV were illustrated from the youth’s narratives: (a) sexual coercion, (b) sexual assault, (c) sexual abuse, and (d) forced sexual activities. Our results underscore the ambiguity of sexual consent and definition of sexual DV among adolescent girls and young women. This research further supports the necessity to develop and implement prevention programs that specifically target sexual DV in this population.