Sexual Health Transformation Among College Student Educators in an Arts-Based HIV Prevention Intervention: A Qualitative Cross-Site Analysis

ABSTRACT

We examined the sexual health change process experienced by 26 college student sexual health educators from three geographic regions of the United States who participated in a multisite arts-based sexual health prevention program. We conducted eight focus groups and used a phenomenological approach to analyze data. We drew from social cognitive theory (SCT) to examine how sexual health knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy, and communication shifted across the duration of participation. Findings suggest that the college student sexual health educators (a) developed enhanced sexual health awareness and critical consciousness, (b) questioned their own sexual health education and challenged previous beliefs, and (c) demonstrated self-efficacy related to intended behavior change and their perceived role as social justice advocates. We present both similarities and differences regarding the sexual health change process among the college student sexual health educators across the three sites.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV prevention
• self-efficacy
• sexual health awareness
• sexual health communication
• young adult

Acknowledgments

We thank the college students for their participation in this study. We also would like to thank Lisa Park, the AGHG Fund Manager. Lastly, we would like to thank the course instructors for each of the three AMP! locations who allowed time and space for researchers to visit the classroom and recruit participants.

Funding

This work was supported by a developmental grant from the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) NIH-funded program P30 AI50410, the AIDS Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), UCLA Center for AIDS Research (AI28697), the UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute, NCRR and NCATS (UL1TR000124), National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences UCLA CTSI Grant UL1TR000124. Additional support was provided by the Ford Foundation (Grant 1120-1496), the David and Linda Shaheen Foundation, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and the Ueltschi course development grant from the University of North Carolina's Center for Public Service's APPLES Service-Learning Program.