Teaching Sexual Consent With a Narrative-Based Card Game.

Area of Science:

• Social Sciences
• Health Education
• Game Studies

Background:

• College women face high rates of sexual violence.
• Current consent education is often perceived as unrealistic by students.
• Existing sexual scripts may not align with effective consent narratives.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the potential of narrative-based card games for consent education.
• To assess the authenticity of consent learning through gameplay.
• To analyze how games can address discrepancies between taught and practiced consent.

Main Methods:

• Case study involving 27 university students.
• Gameplay and discussion of 'The Hook Up Game'.
• Narrative analysis of game-generated stories and discourse analysis of collaborative learning.

Main Results:

• Gameplay generated narratives that could be compared to established sexual scripts.
• Collaborative discourse revealed learning opportunities within the game.
• The study illustrates games' capacity to facilitate exploration of sexual consent.

Conclusions:

• Narrative-based card games show promise for authentic consent education.
• Games can create safe spaces for discussing and understanding consent.
• Integrating games into consent education may improve student engagement and learning outcomes.