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. 2025 Jun 27;15(7):875.
doi: 10.3390/bs15070875.

Nonconsensual Sexual Experience Acknowledgment: Exploring the Roles of Gender Identity, Sexual Aggression Myths, and Psychological Inflexibility

Wesley Malvini  1 , Jessica M Criddle  2 , Mark S Lacour  1 , Emily K Sandoz  1
Affiliations

Nonconsensual Sexual Experience Acknowledgment: Exploring the Roles of Gender Identity, Sexual Aggression Myths, and Psychological Inflexibility

Wesley Malvini et al. Behav Sci (Basel). .

Abstract

Nonconsensual sexual experiences (NSEs) can take many forms, including rape and sexual assault. NSE acknowledgment has been linked to several positive and negative outcomes. A person's acknowledgment of their NSEs may be in part due to the extent to which they accept myths about sexual aggression (AMASA). However, AMASA does not fully account for NSE acknowledgment, which necessitates research on possible moderators. Further, other individual differences, such as gender identity, may play a role in both AMASA and acknowledgment. The primary aim of this study was to examine psychological flexibility (PF) and inflexibility (PI) as potential moderators of the relationship between NSE acknowledgment and AMASA. AMASA and gender identity both had significant, positive associations with acknowledgment. Furthermore, there was a significant negative relationship between acknowledgment and PI. The current study provides data on two psychological constructs that may serve as target areas for developing interventions to support people with NSE histories, as well as furthering our understanding of acknowledgment across gender identities.

Keywords: gender identity; nonconsensual sexual experiences; psychological flexibility; psychological inflexibility; rape myths; sexual violence acknowledgment.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest that would affect any of the methods involved in this study. However, the project supervisor and final author (E.K.S.) is serving as the guest editor for this special edition of Behavioral Sciences. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Degree of nonconsensual sexual experience (NSE) acknowledgment across quintiles of acceptance of myths about sexual aggression (AMASA). Each quintile (i.e., bin) illustrates 20% of the data distribution for the variable on the x-axis with the lowest range of scores in bin 1 (0–19%) and the highest range of scores in bin 5 (80–100%); error bars represent standard error of the mean (SEM); the mean AMASA scores were 2.92 for bin 1 (SD = 1.43), 2.58 for bin 2 (SD = 1.52), 2.41 for bin 3 (SD = 1.62), 2.15 for bin 4 (SD = 1.56), and 1.88 for bin 5 (SD = 1.65).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Degree of NSE acknowledgment across quintiles of psychological flexibility (PF). The mean PF scores were 2.36 for bin 1 (SD = 1.56), 2.47 for bin 2 (SD = 1.53), 2.55 for bin 3 (SD = 1.61), 2.32 for bin 4 (SD = 1.63), and 2.39 for bin 5 (SD = 1.65).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Degree of NSE acknowledgment across quintiles of psychological inflexibility (PI). The mean PI scores were 1.95 for bin 1 (SD = 1.59), 2.19 for bin 2 (SD = 1.68), 2.59 for bin 3 (SD = 1.49), 2.52 for bin 4 (SD = 1.54), and 2.70 for bin 5 (SD = 1.56).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Differences in the degree of NSE acknowledgment across gender identities.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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