Development and implementation of a sexual health curriculum to reduce sexual risk and improve sexual experience among young adults

Background Most sex and STI/HIV education programs for young people are designed to reduce sexual risk; very few are also designed to improve their sexual experience. Program Description We developed a curriculum titled Promoting Sexual Health (PSH) for 18-24 year olds. It is designed to reduce unintended pregnancy, reduce STIs and improve the quality of sexual experience. It strives to achieve the last goal by helping young adults become more clear about what they do and do not want to do sexually, improve communication with their partner about sexual desires and please themselves and their partners. It actively engages participants in many activities to help them create safer and more satisfying sexual experiences. When developing the curriculum, we conducted focus groups and created a detailed comprehensive logic model based on past research. We successfully implemented PSH among diverse groups of young people and administered post-test self-assessments. These assessments indicated it was effective in achieving all three goals. Lessons Learned 1. It is possible to integrate all three goals in a single curriculum effectively. 2. The uniqueness of the third goal made PSH much more attractive to participants and greatly increased their enthusiasm. 3. They believed PSH made them much more likely to use long acting contraceptives and condoms and more confident in their ability to avoid unwanted partners, communicate with their partner and please their partners sexually. Conclusions Programs like Promoting Sexual Health should be rigorously evaluated and implemented more widely to better meet the needs of young people.