HEALTH PROMOTION INTERVENTION IN REPRODUCTIVE

HEALTH AND SAFE SEXUAL PRACTICES FOR FIRST-YEAR

UNIVERSITY STUDENTS.

by

OLADEJO KOREDE SAHEED

R2106D12340835

Assessment Point 2

Health Improvement (34071)

2nd of August 2022

INTRODUCTION

Collegiate hookups often involve sexual behaviors that place students at risk for unwanted

pregnancies and for contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) with African
American women at disparate risk. While several studies have shown adequate sexual knowledge
does not necessarily translate into safer sexual behaviors, the relationship between sexual risk
and sexual satisfaction has remained unexplored despite sexual satisfaction being a major motivator
of sexual conduct. The current study examines the association
between sexual knowledge, sexual satisfaction, and sexual risk among undergraduate students at
Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the Southeastern United States based on a sex
positive approach to STI prevention. Gender, history of partnered sex, and “virginity” pledges were
explored as possible moderators. Three hundred African American/Black, predominantly freshmen,
and Christian students completed related surveys. Overall participants had low sexual knowledge
with women better than men. Males reported more sexually risky behaviors but students without
history of partnered sex reported fewer. “Virginity” pledges were unrelated to sexual risk taking.
Overall, participants were more sexually satisfied than dissatisfied with no gender differences. There
was no significant relationship between sexual knowledge and sexual satisfaction for either gender,
with varying degrees of sexual satisfaction at all risk levels. Gender weakly moderated the
relationship between sexual risk and sexual satisfaction regardless of history of partnered sex.
Results bode well for the development of a sex positive approach to STI and unwanted pregnancy
prevention.