Unhealthy relationships have a devastating impact on adolescents' academic performance, including poor attendance, difficulty concentrating, and feeling unsafe at school. Schools provide an ideal setting to positively influence adolescents' attitudes, knowledge, and relationship skills by integrating healthy relationship lessons into sexuality…

Adolescent consumption of screen media continues to increase. A variety of theoretical constructs hypothesize the impact of media content on health-related attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. This study uses a coding instrument based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Youth Risk Behavior Survey to analyze health behavior contained in…

Reducing risky sexual behaviors and their negative health outcomes in youth remains a priority for health educators. Years of research have documented media's effect on various adolescent health risks, including sexual behaviors. As technology evolves and youth access to media increases, understanding the role of media in adolescent health risk…

Would You Rather (WYR), with a Sexual Health Twist! teaching technique uses two youth games, "Would you rather…" and Twister®, to actively engage students in developing decision-making skills regarding human sexuality. Utilizing the "Would you rather" choices, the teacher provides a short scenario with two difficult choices.…

Sexual health concerns such as sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancy remain substantial health problems faced by young adults, especially college women. University healthcare providers may be instrumental in increasing female patients' involvement in preventative sexual health behaviors, however little research has examined this…

The purpose of this article to describe the development, implementation, and evaluation of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health Preconception Peer Educators program at a small private historically black college and university (HBCU). Peer educators were college students who completed a two-day training that…

When used consistently and correctly every time, condoms can prevent against the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unplanned pregnancies. Condoms are a significant prevention method viable for all populations. This study was conducted among students (277) at a Midwestern University who were enrolled in a personal health and…

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to assess potential relationships among reproductive health knowledge, preventive health behaviors, perceived severity and risk of breast cancer, cervical cancer, and sexually transmitted infections and selected demographical variables and characteristics related to acculturation among Latina immigrants.…

A long-term public health goal in the United States involves convincing adolescents to postpone sexual activity or promote responsible sexual activity. This study investigated the effect of using infant simulators on sexuality, child care attitudes and knowledge with a sample of 309 high school students from seven different states. The treatment…

Race/ethnicity has been associated with the prevalence of sexual activity among youth as well as with youth assets. Research has also shown that youth assets are associated with youth abstinence. However, very few studies have examined whether the relationship between youth assets and sexual activity might differ based on race/ethnicity. The study…

Research on whether health education, specifically personal health classes affects behavior change is inconclusive. In this study, a sample of students from two large southeastern universities enrolled in a required personal health course and an elective personal health course were administered the National College Health Risk Behavior Survey…

Purpose: To examine if attitudes toward premarital sex, beliefs about peer influence, and family communication about sexual relationships differ by sexual experience status. Methods: Data were collected from a randomly selected ethnically diverse youth sample (N = 1,318) residing in two Midwestern cities. The primary method used in data analysis…

Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD), loss of sexual desire for sexual activity, is one of the most common sexual dysfunctions of men and women in the United States. This article presents an overview of this specific sexual dysfunction including incidence, possible causes, treatment options, and the role of the health educator in addressing…

Adolescents and young adults are likely to be sexually active and interested in sexual ethics. In order to tap into this interest and assist in their intellectual development, a sexual ethics continuum teaching strategy was developed during four semesters with six sections of two different college courses. A total of 52 behaviors of interest to…

While the phenomenon of sexual coercion has been studied extensively, little is known about African-American college students' perceptions about verbal sexual coercion. Using a phenomenological approach, the researchers conducted five focus group interviews with 39 African-American students (20 females, 19 males) at a large Midwestern university…