Validation of the Dutch Sexual Consent Scale-Revised

Societal awareness of the importance of discussing and establishing sexual consent prior to sexual interaction is increasing. However, knowledge about Dutch young people's attitudes and behaviors related to sexual consent remains limited and a validated Dutch sexual consent scale is currently lacking. To address these gaps, the dimensionality and construct validity of the Dutch Sexual Consent Scale-Revised (SCS-R) were evaluated in a cross-sectional quantitative study among Dutch adolescents and young adults aged 16-25 (n = 555), including heterosexual (n = 373) and non-heterosexual (n = 182) individuals, as well as cisgender women (n = 378), cisgender men (n = 150), and non-cisgender respondents (n = 27). Three of the five Dutch SCS-R subscales-Positive attitude; Perceived Behavioral Control; and Awareness-demonstrated psychometric robustness and can be applied in their original form within a sexuality- and gender- diverse Dutch context. For the remaining two subscales-Consent Norms and Indirect Consent Behaviors-correlated two-level models are suggested to improve applicability in the Dutch context. Another key finding of this study is that sexual consent experiences were significantly less aligned with sexual consent attitudes among cisgender women and non-heterosexual individuals, compared to cisgender men and heterosexual individuals. In conclusion, the results support the use of the Dutch SCS-R in future research, although adaptions are suggested for two of the subscales. In addition, the results underscore the importance of developing inclusive, context-sensitive policies, educational materials, and campaigns that empower young people to respect others' boundaries and express their own preferences regarding sexual consent and activity.