November 25, 2024, Durham, NC – The American Journal of Sexuality Education recently published an article detailing findings from iRT’s research on comprehensive sex education programs for college students. The article, entitled “Acceptability and Fidelity of a Media Literacy Education-Based, Comprehensive Sexual Health Program for College Students: A Multi-Method Student-Centered Evaluation,” was authored by current and former iRT Researchers Dr. Reina Evans-Paulson, Kylia Ahuna, Dr. Tracy Scull, Dr. Christina Dodson, and Dr. Janis Kupersmidt.
College students are at high risk for engaging in risky sexual behaviors, such as unprotected sex and poor communication with partners. Providing high-quality comprehensive sex education is a key opportunity for colleges to prevent risky sexual behaviors in students and promote healthy relationships. To help better understand how to promote the sexual health of college students, iRT conducted research, which was outlined in the recent article, to examine how college students felt about two different sexual health promotion programs.
About the study.
As part of the study, community college students were assigned to take one of two online sex education programs and report their thoughts on their assigned program in a survey. Students reported how engaged they were with the program, how much they learned from the program, how relevant the program was to them, what they thought about the design of the program, and more. This insight may help colleges decide what type of program to provide to their students to make it more likely that their students will actually complete the program and learn important sexual health concepts and skills.
More specifically, this study aimed to provide insight into the acceptability of sex education programs that incorporate media literacy education compared to programs that do not. College students consume a lot of media every day, and it may negatively impact their sexual behaviors and beliefs. Media often contain inaccurate and unhealthy depictions of sex and relationships. Media literacy education teaches young people to critically analyze sexual media messages they consume rather than accepting them at face value to protect their health and wellbeing.
To compare students’ evaluations of a media literacy education-based sexual health program and a more traditional (i.e., non-media literacy-based) sexual health program, student participants were separated into two groups. Some students were randomly assigned to complete Media Aware, a program that incorporates both comprehensive information about sex and media literacy education concepts. Other student participants were asked to complete Health Aware, a program that contained the same comprehensive sexual health information but did not include media literacy education content.
Important findings.
Findings from this study showed that students found the programs equally acceptable. Students rated their engagement with, their amount of learning from, and the relevance of both programs highly.
Qualitative data on what students liked best about their assigned program highlighted students’ preference for sex education programs that are interactive, online, and inclusive. Students also indicated that they preferred brief programming, and some students who took Media Aware reported that the program’s media content was the aspect of the program they liked most.
If you are interested in reading more findings from this research, visit https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/D7AI6STX4P3C2V2G4XBP/full?target=10.1080/15546128.2024.2415308 to access a free copy of iRT’s article in the American Journal of Sexuality Education.