Feasibility Study of the Online High School Media Aware Program (FS-OHSMAP)

Web-based High School Media Literacy for Healthy Relationships,

This is a pretest-posttest feasibility study of Media Aware Sexual Health - High School, an interactive web-based comprehensive sexual health media literacy education program for high school students. The program is designed to develop students' critical thinking skills and promote sexual health. It is hypothesized that this program will enhance adolescents' media literacy skills, sexual health knowledge, cognitions (i.e., attitudes, self-efficacy, and norms), and behaviors regarding healthy sexual decision-making.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Sexual Behavior
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Media Aware Sexual Health - High School

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 367
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • North Carolina
    • Durham, North Carolina, United States, 27707
      • innovation Research & Training

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 12 years to 17 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Students must be in grades 9 or 10 in participating classrooms at participating schools.
2. Students must be able to speak and read English because the study materials (e.g., questionnaires) and the program are in English.
3. Students must have appropriate permissions to receive sex education per school districts' policy (i.e., opt-in policy or opt-out policy).

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Media Aware Sexual Health - High School; Students received the web-based Media Aware Sexual Health - High School program.	Behavioral: Media Aware Sexual Health - High School; Media Aware Sexual Health is a web-based comprehensive sexual health education program for high school students that uses a media literacy approach.; Other Names: Media Aware
No Intervention: Typical Health Education Programming; Students received their regular health education programming not related to sexual health education.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in willingness to engage in unprotected sex	4-point Likert scale (strongly disagree; disagree; agree; strongly agree) assessing the degree to which one is willing to engage in unprotected sex (Suppose you were with a boyfriend/girlfriend. He/she wants to have sex, but neither of you have any form of protection. In this situation, how willing would you be to go ahead and hook-up anyway?).	pretest and posttest (approximately one week after pretest)
Change in willingness to hook up against own wishes	4-point Likert scale (strongly disagree; disagree; agree; strongly agree) assessing the degree to which one is willing to hook up with someone even if they are not sure that they really want to. (Suppose you were with a boyfriend/girlfriend. He/she wants to hook-up, but you are not sure that you want to. In this situation, how willing would you be to go ahead and hook-up anyway?).	pretest and posttest (approximately one week after pretest)
Change in intentions to use contraception/protection	4-point Likert scale (not at all likely; unlikely; likely; extremely likely) assessing intentions to use contraception (e.g., if you were to have vaginal or anal sex, how likely would you be to use a condom?).	pretest and posttest (approximately one week after pretest)
Change in intentions to engage in sexual activity	4-point Likert scale (not at all likely; unlikely; likely; extremely likely) assessing participants intentions to engage in sex in the next year (How likely is that you will have any type of sexual contact with another person (oral sex, anal sex, vaginal sex, or genital-to-genital contact) in the next year?).	pretest and posttest (approximately one week after pretest)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Efficacy to refuse sexual activity	4-point Likert scale (strongly disagree; disagree; agree; strongly agree) assessing participants efficacy to refuse sex (e.g., I could say no to someone who is pressuring me to have sex).	pretest and posttest (approximately one week after pretest)
Efficacy to communicate before sex	4-point Likert scale (strongly disagree; disagree; agree; strongly agree) assessing participants efficacy to communicate about sexual health (e.g., I could talk with a boy/girlfriend about using condoms for sexually transmitted infection protection).	pretest and posttest (approximately one week after pretest)
Efficacy to use contraception/protection	4-point Likert scale (strongly disagree; disagree; agree; strongly agree) assessing participants efficacy to get and use contraception (e.g., If I wanted to, I could get condoms or another form of contraception).	pretest and posttest (approximately one week after pretest)
Intentions to communicate before sex	4-point Likert scale (not at all likely; unlikely; likely; extremely likely) assessing intentions to communicate about sexual health before sex (e.g., Before deciding to have sex, how likely would you be to talk to a boy/girlfriend about HIV/AIDS or other sexually transmitted infections?).	pretest and posttest (approximately one week after pretest)
Sexual health knowledge	Participants are asked several multiple choice and T/F questions about sexual health.	pretest and posttest (approximately one week after pretest)
Norms - Frequency of teen risky sexual activity (%)	Participants are asked to indicate what percentage [0% = no teens; 100% = all teens] are engage in risky sexual activities (e.g., have sex with someone who is much older).	pretest and posttest (approximately one week after pretest)
Norms - teen sexual activity (%)	Participants are asked to indicate what percentage [0% = no teens; 100% = all teens] are engage in sexual activity.	pretest and posttest (approximately one week after pretest)
Perceived realism of media messages	Participants are asked on a 4-point Likert scale (strongly disagree; disagree; agree; strongly agree) the degree to which they agreed that teens on the media: 1) do things that average teens do; 2) act like average teens; 3) are as sexually experienced as average teens; 3) get pregnant as often as average teens; 4) get STIs as often as average teens.	pretest and posttest (approximately one week after pretest)
Perceived similarity to media messages	Participants are asked on a 4-point Likert scale (strongly disagree; disagree; agree; strongly agree) the degree to which they agreed that: 1) The things I do in my life are similar to what I see teens do in the media; 2) I look like teens I see in the media; 3) I like the kinds of things that teens in the media like.	pretest and posttest (approximately one week after pretest)
Cognitive elaboration of advertisement	Participants are shown an advertisement and responded on a 4-point Likert scale (not much at all; a little; a good amount; a lot) the extent to which they: 1) thought about the ad; 2) spent time thinking about the ad; and 3) paid attention to the ad.	pretest and posttest (approximately one week after pretest)
Media Skepticism	Participants are asked on a 4-point Likert scale (strongly disagree; disagree; agree; strongly agree) the degree to which they agree with several statements about media (e.g., Media are dishonest about what happens when people drink alcohol).	pretest and posttest (approximately one week after pretest)
Teen Sex Attitudes	Participants are asked on a 4-point Likert scale (strongly disagree; disagree; agree; strongly agree) the degree to which they agree with several statements about teen sex (e.g., it is ok for teens to be sexually active).	pretest and posttest (approximately one week after pretest)
Risky Teen Sex Attitudes	Participants are asked on a 4-point Likert scale (strongly disagree; disagree; agree; strongly agree) the degree to which they agree with several statements about teens engaging in risky sexually behaviors (e.g., I believe it is ok for teens to do use alcohol or drugs before or during a sexual encounter.)	pretest and posttest (approximately one week after pretest)
Teen Contraception Use Attitudes	Participants are asked on a 4-point Likert scale (strongly disagree; disagree; agree; strongly agree) the degree to which they agree with several statements about teen contraception use (e.g., I believe if a teen is going to have sex, they should always use a condom.)	pretest and posttest (approximately one week after pretest)
Teen Sexual Communication Attitudes	Participants are asked on a 4-point Likert scale (strongly disagree; disagree; agree; strongly agree) the degree to which they agree with several statements about teen sexual communication (e.g., Before deciding to have sex, I believe teens should talk with their parents or another trusted adult).	pretest and posttest (approximately one week after pretest)

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Intent to intervene as bystander	Participants are asked on a 4-point Likert scale (not likely at all; Unlikely; Likely; Extremely likely) how likely they would be to intervene as a bystander (e.g., Approach a friend if I thought they were in an abusive relationship and let them know that I am here to help)	pretest and posttest (approximately one week after pretest)
Efficacy to intervene as bystander	Participants are asked to indicate on a scale on 0 (Can't do) to 100 (Very Certain) their degree of confidence in several behaviors (e.g., I could talk to a friend who I suspected is in an abusive relationship.)	pretest and posttest (approximately one week after pretest)
Belief in rape myths	Participants are asked on a 4-point Likert scale (strongly disagree; disagree; agree; strongly agree) their level of agreement on several items pertaining to myths about rape (e.g., It shouldn't be considered rape if a guy is drunk and didn't realize what he was doing.)	pretest and posttest (approximately one week after pretest)
Acceptance of strict gender role stereotypes	Participants are asked on a 4-point Likert scale (strongly disagree; disagree; agree; strongly agree) their level of agreement on several items pertaining to strict gender role stereotypes (e.g., Raising children is primarily a woman's responsibility).	pretest and posttest (approximately one week after pretest)
Acceptance of dating violence	Participants are asked on a 4-point Likert scale (strongly disagree; disagree; agree; strongly agree) their level of agreement on several items pertaining to dating violence (e.g., It is okay for people to hit their girlfriends/boyfriends if they did something to make them mad).	pretest and posttest (approximately one week after pretest)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Innovation Research & Training

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 24, 2018
• Primary Completion (Actual): March 12, 2018
• Study Completion (Actual): March 12, 2018

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 21, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 25, 2019
• First Posted (Actual): February 26, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 26, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 25, 2019
• Last Verified: February 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: iRT-Media Aware HS-Phase I

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No