Youth Perspectives on Ideal Approaches to Preventing Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Introduction: Youth ages 15-24 are disproportionately affected by sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Given the life-changing and in some cases life threatening consequences of STDs, effective youth-focused intervention strategies are needed. Although many studies relevant to the evaluation and implementation of youth-focused STD interventions have been conducted, few studies have examined youth perspectives on different types of intervention strategies.

Methods: The current study examined youth perspectives on current and ideal strategies to prevent STDs. Interviews with 37 youth ages 13-24 (78% female; 63% African American, 29% White, 14% Latino) were conducted. Participants were recruited through three non-profit agencies and one community college in an urban Midwestern city. Youth were asked to discuss their perceptions about what currently is being done to prevent STDs and what else should be done by youth, parents, schools, doctors, and the broader community. Interview transcripts were analyzed using top-down and bottom-up coding to identify key themes.

Results: Participants commonly stated that although STDs were discussed in school-based comprehensive sex education classes, they did not have enough information about specific STDs (e.g., causes, symptoms, and long-term consequences) and wanted to receive more information and to have more discussion about STDs in schools. Additionally, participants realized that doctors potentially are a valuable source of information about STDs, but noted that discussing STDs with doctors is awkward and raises privacy concerns for minors (e.g., about parents finding out). Therefore, strategies focused on making it easier and more comfortable for youth to confidentially access information and services in doctors’ offices were suggested. Although participants noted that talking to parents about STDs was awkward, nearly all suggested that parents should talk about these issues with their children more extensively than they currently do. Additionally, several youth mentioned the need for peer-to-peer education because they perceived it would be more comfortable to talk to someone their own age about these issues. Participants had mixed opinions about providing information and services at places youth typically hang out (e.g., malls and movie theaters), but agreed that if information and services are available they should be offered as discretely as possible or youth will be unlikely to utilize them.

Conclusions: Although youth clearly desire to receive STD prevention information and services from a variety of sources and in a variety of settings, most current evidence-based strategies were designed for use in schools and community organizations. These findings suggest that to effectively prevent STDs among youth, innovative approaches are needed that include parents, doctors, and peers.