"Hooking up" with friends, strangers, and acquaintances is a popular way for college students to experience sexual intimacy without investing in relationships. Because hooking up often occurs in situations in which prophylactics against sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are not available or in which students' judgment is impaired, it can involve risky behaviors that compromise student health. As such, in-depth studies of the factors related to sexual risk taking during hookups are needed, to advance preventive research and programming. Based on semistructured interviews with 71 college students about their hooking-up experiences, the findings of this study demonstrate that the Health Belief Model can serve as a useful framework for understanding sexual risk taking during hooking up, and offers suggestions for sexual risk-prevention programs on college campuses. The results demonstrate why students' assessments of their own and their peers' susceptibility to STIs are often misinformed. The findings also show how situational characteristics, such as spontaneity, undermine students' sexual self-efficacy.

Summer research opportunities for undergraduates, such as those supported by the National Science Foundation's Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program, can be critical experiences that help persuade students to pursue research through graduate studies. Studies analyzing the key actions of successful mentors are scarce. The goal of this study was to explore how hypothesized ''key actions'' of mentors correlated with student perceptions of mentoring and of overall program quality, students' scholarly output resulting from the REU, and the influence of the REU on students' decisions to pursue graduate school. Students who participated in 11 REU programs at a large Midwestern US university in summer 2012 were surveyed in spring 2013 about their experiences in the program and with their primary research mentor. Results suggest that the key factors hypothesized to be associated with good mentoring correlated with students' ratings of their relationship with their mentor, students' overall program ratings, students' scholarly output resulting from the REU, and the influence of the REU on students' decisions to pursue graduate school. The six ''key actions'' hypothesized to be associated with good mentoring were significantly correlated with student experience in an REU program. Although none of the six actions is particularly complex, taking these actions is crucial and non-trivial. Prospective REU mentors could be informed about these key actions during mentor training activities. Future research could examine these six dimensions across postsecondary institutions and in mentoring relationships outside of REU programs.

Hooking up" is a popular way for college students to experience sexual intimacy without investing in relationships. Hooking up has recently been found to be associated with a risk of rape. Based on semistructured interviews with 31 students, the findings of this study will draw from a grounded theory approach and utilize insights from critical feminist theory to determine what barriers to sexual consent exist in hookup relationships, thus placing women at risk for victimization. Also drawing from critical feminist theory, it will discuss the ways that oppressive legal policies related to consent and rape, and the history of these policies, can lend insight into why these barriers to consent exist. Suggestions will be made for improving sexual risk-taking prevention programs on college campuses. Chapter 4: Results This chapter will consist of five different sections. In the introduction, I will discuss the laws and policies regarding sexual assault where the study took place, and introduce five scenarios which met these legal definitions of rape. In each of the four sections following that, I will discuss, individually, the barriers to consent which were identified in this study.

is a Research and Evaluation Scientist with the Research Institute for Studies in Education at Iowa State University. She conducts research and program evaluation with a particular focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion; campus climate; and STEM education. She has expertise in research and evaluation methodology, including both qualitative and quantitative analyses.

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