Effects of a Sexual Health Literacy Development Program on Online Sexting Media Use to Prevent Sexual Risk Behaviors among Lower Secondary School Students in Phichai District, Uttaradit Province
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Abstract
This quasi-experimental research employing a two–group pretest–posttest design aimed to examine the effects of a sexual health literacy development program regarding sexting in online media for the prevention of sexual risk behaviors among junior high school students. Participants were selected and assigned to an experimental group and a comparison group, with 35 students in each group, using simple random sampling. The research instruments included: 1) a sexual health literacy development program regarding sexting in online media, comprising six components: information access skills, knowledge and understanding skills, communication skills, self-management skills, media literacy skills, and decision-making skills. The program was implemented over a period of eight weeks, and 2) questionnaires assessing sexual health literacy regarding sexting in online media and sexual risk behaviors. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the questionnaires were .94 and .96, respectively. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the Mann–Whitney U test, and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test.
The results revealed that, after participating in the program, students in the experimental group had significantly higher scores in sexual health literacy regarding sexting in online media than before the intervention and higher than those in the comparison group at the .05 significance level (Z = 365.50, p = .004). However, sexual risk behaviors did not significantly differ from those before the intervention or from those of the comparison group.
This program can be applied to enhance sexual health literacy regarding sexting in online media and incorporated into extracurricular activities through participatory learning processes, potentially contributing to the sustainable reduction of sexual risk behaviors among lower secondary school students.
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