Mapping evidence of young people’s experiences of sexual aggression in the United Kingdom: A systematic scoping review protocol

BACKGROUND: According to the UK’s Office for National Statistics, England and Wales reported a 2.9% increase in sexual aggression cases (3.4 million females and 631,000 males) between 2009 and 2019. In Scotland, sexual aggression cases increased by 66%, with 40% of these sexual violations being perpetrated on individuals under the age of 18 years, while incidents relating to sexual misconduct in Northern Ireland increased by 21.0%, with only 41.2% of those cases being prosecuted. Acts of sexual aggression can have physical, emotional and mental consequences which predispose young people to subsequent short- and long-term mental and social disorders and comorbidities. Such consequences include feelings of guilt, shame, anger, experiencing post-traumatic stress disorders, antisocial behaviour, alcohol and drug misuse and dependency, confusion surrounding sexuality and sexually transmitted illnesses including the human immuno-deficiency virus. However, despite the societal, health, economic and educational implications for young people in the UK and increasing statistics, few studies address this scourge. Hence, the objective is to systematically map evidence of young people’s experiences of sexual aggression in the UK and identify literature gaps that could inform future research. METHODS: The included literature for this scoping review is published peer-reviewed articles of all research designs; grey literature including governmental reports, policy statements, conference and media reports; and unpublished theses. Electronic searches of databases and search engines such as Embase, Google, Google Scholar, EBSCOhost, CINAHL, PubMed, Education Resources Information Centre (ERIC), PsycInfo, World Health Organization (WHO), media organizations, governmental and education departments and higher learning websites for published literature. Additional searches will include screening citations in reference lists of articles and perusing “Cited by” logs. All retrieved literature will be exported to an Endnote X9.2 library. Duplicate documents will be deleted prior to title screening commencing. An adapted Mixed Method Appraisal Tool (MMAT) will be independently used by two reviewers to ensure a rigorous study and quality assessment of all included studies. DISCUSSION: This scoping review employs a mixed-method approach to map and select relevant literature and summarize and report on young people’s experiences of sexual aggression in the UK. Once the data is summarized, it could inform planning and policy pertaining to a safe and effective sexual health curriculum for all young people, assist with the development of effective strategies to reduce sexual aggression and guide future research.