Seeing How Far I’ve Come: The Impact of the Digital Sexual Life History Calendar on Young Adult Research Participants

Abstract

The Digital Sexual Life History Calendar (d/SLHC) is a Web-based platform for collecting young adults’ sexual histories. In addition to collecting diverse data, the d/SLHC was designed to benefit participants by enabling reflection on their sexual and relationship experiences in the context of other life events and circumstances. In a pilot study of the d/SLHC, survey data were collected to test whether creating a d/SLHC timeline had any impact on sexual well-being. A sample of 18- to 25-year-old participants recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) completed an online survey about sexuality and relationships. Of those, 113 also completed d/SLHC timelines and 262 served as a comparison group. Six months later, participants from both groups were invited to complete a follow-up survey (total N = 249). Repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) results indicated that participants who completed d/SLHC timelines exhibited higher sexual esteem immediately following d/SLHC completion and at follow-up. No changes in sexual esteem were observed in the comparison group, and there were no differences between the groups with regard to sexual health behaviors and outcomes. These findings suggest that sexuality studies may have the potential to yield not only rich data for researchers but also rich experiences for participants.

Notes

¹ Data from participants’ individual d/SLHC timelines were not included in the current analyses and therefore the instrument is not reviewed in depth as a measure. Please contact the author for detailed information about the types of data and modes of collection used on d/SLHC timelines.

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported by the Les Brun Pilot Study Program through the Buffalo Center for Social Research, University at Buffalo School of Social Work. I thank Anne Bruns, Carol Scott, and Amy Monin for their assistance with data collection; Eugene Maguin for his consultation on analyses; and Van Patten Media for Web site design and hosting services.