5115.0 - Social media influences on youth sexual health in an urban Northeastern U.S. city

Program: Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH)

Session: Emerging Approaches and Insights into Contraceptive and Sexual Health

Presenter: Nimisha Srikanth

Authors: Raquel Rose, Sitara Weerakoon, Shreya Jadhav, Jasmine Abrams, Ijeoma Opara

Abstract

Youth dependence on social media has led to concerns about the sexual nature of some content consumed by youth online. This study seeks to understand how sexual health content on social media influences youth behaviors and perceptions on sexual health while factoring in peer dynamics.
Twenty youth between the ages of 13-21 years were recruited from youth serving organizations in an urban city in New Jersey and interviewed from July to August 2024. The sample had a mean age of 16 years, 80% identified as male and 20% identified as female, and 55% identified as Black/African American, 25% identified as Afro-Latino, and 15% identified as Hispanic/Latino. Additionally, 30% of the sample were justice-involved.

Rapid qualitative analysis was conducted to identify three themes. First was “There is varied awareness of HIV and STIs through social media”, with youth having varied knowledge on HIV and STIs due to lack of education and content. Second was “Privacy is an important value associated with sex”, with youth affirming they prefer to keep sexual content offline due to the risk of having content leaked on public pages. Third was “Youth learned little positive lessons about sex from social media”, with youth stating they learned few beneficial lessons about sex and felt more sexual content on social media encourages youth to become more sexually active.

Researchers and policymakers must collaborate with youth in developing and disseminating public health and legal solutions for social media and sexual health.