Perspectives on sexual consent and rejection between adolescents and young people from Azuay and Cañar: knowledge, communication and interpretation.

Sexual consent is recognized in academic literature as a key element to prevent sexual violence and exercise healthy, positive and responsible sexuality. Likewise, previous studies have emphasized that young people and adolescents are the most vulnerable groups in terms of sexual violence and in ignorance of sexual consent. Although academy and public debate argue that sexual activity as a couple must be built in terms of being agreed or not, very little is known about how adolescents and young people communicate and understand consent. This knowledge is even more limited in contexts such as Ecuadorian where studies on the subject are brief. This situation is worrying when observing the indices of sexual violence in Ecuador and in particular between adolescents and young people. The present study, pioneer in our context, aims to explore the prospects of adolescents and young people between 15 and 24 years, on knowledge, communication and interpretation of sexual consent and rejection. To carry out this research, a concurrent mixed methodology will be used. Thus, through a quantitative study we seek to establish knowledge about sexual consent and sources of information about the same as adolescents and young people establishing differences by gender, age and socioeconomic stratum, variables that in previous investigations have shown influence on the phenomenon of study. On the other hand, using a qualitative methodology based on focal groups, it is about understanding in depth the phenomenon by studying perceptions about how they communicate and interpret sexual consent and rejection adolescents and young people in sexual encounters, using scripts of simulated situations. With this information, it will be sought to systematize information that allows the development of training proposals that aim to improve the understanding and processes of sexual consent in adolescents and young people.

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