Social Media Use and Sexual Risk Reduction Behavior Among Minority Youth

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Abstract

<div class="section"> <a class="named-anchor" id="S1">  </a> <h5 class="section-title" id="d7206012e186">Background</h5> <p id="P1">Sexual health is an important area of study—particularly for minority youth and youth living in disadvantaged neighborhoods. </p> </div><div class="section"> <a class="named-anchor" id="S2">  </a> <h5 class="section-title" id="d7206012e191">Objectives</h5> <p id="P2">The purpose of the research was to examine the sources of sexual health information associated with youth adopting sexual risk reduction behaviors. </p> </div><div class="section"> <a class="named-anchor" id="S3">  </a> <h5 class="section-title" id="d7206012e196">Methods</h5> <p id="P3">Data collection took place in a small city in the Northeastern United States using cross-sectional behavioral surveys and modified venue-based sampling. Participants included 249 African-American and Latino/a youth aged 13–24. Participants reported their sources of information about contraception and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/sexually transmitted disease (STD), such as TV/movies, parents, social media; their intentions to have sex; and condom and contraception use during their last sexual activity. Social media use, past pregnancy experience, past sexual history, age, and gender were also measured. Standard tests of bivariate association (chi-squared and <i>F</i>-tests) were used to examine initial associations between sexual risk reduction behavior and exposure to sexual risk reduction information on social media. Logistic regression models were used to test multivariate relationships between information sources and sexual risk reduction behavior. </p> </div><div class="section"> <a class="named-anchor" id="S4">  </a> <h5 class="section-title" id="d7206012e204">Results</h5> <p id="P4">Youth who were exposed to sexual health messages on social media were 2.69 times ( <i>p</i> < .05) and 2.49 times ( <i>p</i> < .08) more likely to have used contraception or a condom at last intercourse, respectively. Parents, schools, or traditional media as information sources were not significantly associated with contractive use or condom use at last intercourse. </p> </div><div class="section"> <a class="named-anchor" id="S5">  </a> <h5 class="section-title" id="d7206012e215">Discussion</h5> <p id="P5">Youth sexual behavior is increasingly informed by social media messages. Health practitioners should utilize social media as an important health promotion tool. </p> </div>

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Most cited references 24

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Adolescent sexual behavior, drug use, and violence: increased reporting with computer survey technology.

C Turner, L. Ku, S M Rogers … (1998)

Surveys of risk behaviors have been hobbled by their reliance on respondents to report accurately about engaging in behaviors that are highly sensitive and may be illegal. An audio computer-assisted self-interviewing (audio-CASI) technology for measuring those behaviors was tested with 1690 respondents in the 1995 National Survey of Adolescent Males. The respondents were randomly assigned to answer questions using either audio-CASI or a more traditional self-administered questionnaire. Estimates of the prevalence of male-male sex, injection drug use, and sexual contact with intravenous drug users were higher by factors of 3 or more when audio-CASI was used. Increased reporting was also found for several other risk behaviors.

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Social media-delivered sexual health intervention: a cluster randomized controlled trial.

Colin Black, Robert Bull, Sarah Schmiege … (2012)

Youth are using social media regularly and represent a group facing substantial risk for sexually transmitted infection (STI). Although there is evidence that the Internet can be used effectively in supporting healthy sexual behavior, this has not yet extended to social networking sites. To determine whether STI prevention messages delivered via Facebook are efficacious in preventing increases in sexual risk behavior at 2 and 6 months. Cluster RCT, October 2010-May 2011. Individuals (seeds) recruited in multiple settings (online, via newspaper ads and face-to-face) were asked to recruit three friends, who in turn recruited additional friends, extending three waves from the seed. Seeds and waves of friends were considered networks and exposed to either the intervention or control condition. Exposure to Just/Us, a Facebook page developed with youth input, or to control content on 18-24 News, a Facebook page with current events for 2 months. Condom use at last sex and proportion of sex acts protected by condoms. Repeated measures of nested data were used to model main effects of exposure to Just/Us and time by treatment interaction. A total of 1578 participants enrolled, with 14% Latino and 35% African-American; 75% of participants completed at least one study follow-up. Time by treatment effects were observed at 2 months for condom use (intervention 68% vs control 56%, p=0.04) and proportion of sex acts protected by condoms (intervention 63% vs control 57%, p=0.03) where intervention participation reduced the tendency for condom use to decrease over time. No effects were seen at 6 months. Social networking sites may be venues for efficacious health education interventions. More work is needed to understand what elements of social media are compelling, how network membership influences effects, and whether linking social media to clinical and social services can be beneficial. This study is registered at www.clinicaltrials.govNCT00725959. Copyright © 2012 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Sexy media matter: exposure to sexual content in music, movies, television, and magazines predicts black and white adolescents' sexual behavior.

Kristin Kenneavy, Geoffrey D. Brown, Carol J Pardun … (2006)

To assess over time whether exposure to sexual content in 4 mass media (television, movies, music, and magazines) used by early adolescents predicts sexual behavior in middle adolescence. An in-home longitudinal survey of 1017 black and white adolescents from 14 middle schools in central North Carolina was conducted. Each teen was interviewed at baseline when he or she was 12 to 14 years old and again 2 years later using a computer-assisted self interview (audio computer-assisted self-interview) to ensure confidentiality. A new measure of each teen's sexual media diet (SMD) was constructed by weighting the frequency of use of 4 media by the frequency of sexual content in each television show, movie, music album, and magazine the teen used regularly. White adolescents in the top quintile of sexual media diet when 12 to 14 years old were 2.2 times more likely to have had sexual intercourse when 14 to 16 years old than those who were in the lowest SMD quintile, even after a number of other relevant factors, including baseline sexual behavior, were introduced. The relationship was not statistically significant for black adolescents after controlling for other factors that were more predictive, including parental disapproval of teen sex and perceived permissive peer sexual norms. Exposure to sexual content in music, movies, television, and magazines accelerates white adolescents' sexual activity and increases their risk of engaging in early sexual intercourse. Black teens appear more influenced by perceptions of their parents' expectations and their friends' sexual behavior than by what they see and hear in the media.