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STDs.com: Sexuality Education Online

STDs.com: Sexuality Education Online. Dr. Sarah N. Keller Dept. of Communication & Theatre MSU-Billings. Objective To identify the educational messages and usability features of safe sex web sites that are important to teenagers. Study contents

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STDs.com: Sexuality Education Online

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  1. STDs.com: Sexuality Education Online Dr. Sarah N. Keller Dept. of Communication & Theatre MSU-Billings

  2. Objective To identify the educational messages and usability features of safe sex web sites that are important to teenagers.

  3. Study contents • How a small group of adolescents ages 14-17 rated five sexual health web sites; • How a larger group of adolescents ages 14-17 ranked 17 health messages on STDs. • Findings • Most of web sites failed to answer teenagers’ personal questions about sexual health; • Most messages received low scores in both the web coverage and the importance to teenagers.

  4. Increasing use of the Internet for health information: Many teenagers use the Internet for information on health-diseases, clinical trials, treatment and nutrition. 44% of teenagers learn about sexual issues from the Internet. Adolescent STD epidemic: About one in four sexually active youth in the U.S. are infected with an STD by age 24. Only 58% of sexually active students reported having used a condom during their last sexual intercourse experience. Background

  5. The Internet provides a unique opportunity for teen’s sexual health education. offers anonymity and sophisticated message tailoring. Relays health information to youth who may not be connected to health care services and lack transportation. Promotes self-efficacy and model communication skills, key components of healthy adolescent development, and prerequisites to safe sex practice and STD prevention. Previous studies: How teenagers use the Internet to learn about and prevent STDs/HIV. Effectiveness of interactive health communication. Background (Cont’d)

  6. Phrase I: To look for the strongest web sites of 36 teen-targeted safe sex web sites. Content Analysis Five web sites were identified as the strongest web sites. Phrase II: To assess adolescents’ criteria for content of sex education on the Internet; Adolescents’ perceptions of the same sites. To develop suggestions for how this information might be improved. Phrases of this Project

  7. Results (Phase I)

  8. Top 5 Web Sites • Web sites: www.nnfr.org/adolsex/fact/adolsex_std.html www.unspeakable.com/truth.html www.siecus.org/teen/ www.chebucto.ns.ca/Health/TeenHealth www.itsyoursexlife.com

  9. Method (Phrase II) • Population • Small group (n = 6) teenagers • Purposive sampling: • Boston’s Teenage Population • 23% of the is African-American • 13% is Hispanic • 58% is Caucasian • Cambridge Rindge and Latin students are 38% African-American; 14% Hispanic; and 40% Caucasian • After-school program guaranteed Internet access

  10. Measurement (Cont’d) • Sexual health criteria • Sexuality and Information Council of the United States (SIECUS) • To inform offline curricular development in sexuality education nationwide.

  11. Score sheet for students’ opinion on how well each web site covered each topic.

  12. Sample American Library Association standards applied to various web sites. From Kapoun, J. (2000). Teaching undergrads web evaluation. College & Research Libraries News. Retrieved Jan. 21, 2003 from http://ala.org. Adapted with permission of authors.

  13. Results –Student questions

  14. Results – STD topics • Top four topics: From Table 2.Average scores representing students’ opinions of how well web sites covered STD topics (on a scale 1-10)

  15. Results – STD topics • Three weakest topics: From Table 2.Average scores representing students’ opinions of how well web sites covered STD topics (on a scale 1-10)

  16. Results –Web site performance

  17. Result—Importance of STDs topics

  18. Result—On-line experience

  19. Results – Usability scores • The highest scoring web site: • www.nnfr.org/adolsex/fact/adolsex_std.html • Total score: 52.5 • The highest scoring usability criterion: • “Currency” • Total score of average currency scores for each site: 41 • The lowest scoring criteria: • “accuracy”: 30.5 • “Objectivity”: 30.5

  20. Results – Open-ended questions • Sexual health • Recommendations • Web sites

  21. Conclusion • Application of the measurement: • The results imply that our measurement tool (coding sheet) for web analysis is reliable and valid. • The tool may be applied by multiple users analyzing sexual health content over time. • Little information on reinfection, how to get counseling, and support groups for HIV positive people was identified in the web sites.

  22. Conclusion (Cont’d) • Generalization: • Students of this project had positive response on sexual health information. • It is likely that other students, with more Internet access, would be more favorable. • Further designs: • To identify top-notch safe sex web sites for students; • To disseminate or advertise information about these sites to students.

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