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Sexuality Research and Social Policy

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15-10-2021

Effectiveness of a Sexual Health Seminar at Improving Contraceptive and Perceived Sexually Transmitted Infection Knowledge Among First-Semester College Students

Authors: Kayley D. McMahan, Spencer B. Olmstead, Kathryn A. Conrad, Jenae E. Bluhm

Published in: Sexuality Research and Social Policy | Issue 1/2023

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Abstract

Introduction

Most emerging adults enter college with little-to-no exposure to comprehensive sexual health education. College entry provides young adults with the freedom to explore sex and relationships, but many first-year students possess inaccurate sexual health knowledge. The purpose of our study was to examine the effectiveness of a sexual health seminar at improving contraceptive knowledge and perceived sexually transmitted infection (STI) knowledge (viral, bacterial, HIV/AIDS, and other STIs) among first-semester college students.

Methods

Using a quasi-experimental design, we collected survey data at the beginning and end of the 2013 fall semester from students enrolled in our sexual health seminar (treatment group, n = 44) and students enrolled in other first-semester seminars (control group, n = 30). We expected the treatment groups’ contraceptive and perceived STI knowledge to improve from pre- to post-test. We also expected the treatment group to have higher knowledge scores than the control group at post-test. We conducted five two-way mixed ANOVAs to test our hypotheses.

Results

We found, with the exception of perceived bacterial STI knowledge, significant interaction effects. Follow-up simple main effect tests supported our hypotheses that treatment group participants’ knowledge increased from pre- to post-test and was higher than the control group at post-test.

Conclusions

Our intervention successfully improved students’ contraceptive knowledge and perceived knowledge of viral STIs, HIV/AIDS, and other STIs. Our results have implications for research on sexual health program evaluation and policies regarding adolescent and young adult sexual health education.

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Title: Effectiveness of a Sexual Health Seminar at Improving Contraceptive and Perceived Sexually Transmitted Infection Knowledge Among First-Semester College Students
Authors: Kayley D. McMahan
Spencer B. Olmstead
Kathryn A. Conrad
Jenae E. Bluhm
Publication date: 15-10-2021
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: Sexuality Research and Social Policy / Issue 1/2023
Print ISSN: 1868-9884
Electronic ISSN: 1553-6610
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-021-00649-9

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Abstract

Introduction

Methods

Results

Conclusions

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