It’s Your Game-Tech: Toward Sexual Health in the Digital Age

Abstract

Adolescent sexually transmitted infection (STI) and birth rates indicate a need for effective middle school HIV/STI, and pregnancy prevention curricula to delay, or mitigate consequences of, early sexual activity. Individual and organizational barriers to adoption, implementation, and maintenance, however, can hamper dissemination of evidence-based sexual health curricula, adversely impacting fidelity and reach. Internet-based approaches may help mitigate these barriers. This paper describes the development and feasibility testing of It’s Your Game (IYG)-Tech, a stand-alone 13-lesson Internet-based sexual health life-skills curriculum adapted from an existing effective sexual health curriculum—It’s Your Game… Keep it Real (IYG). IYG-Tech development adaptation steps were to: 1) Select a suitable effective program and gather the original program materials; 2) Develop “proof of concept” lessons and test usability and impact; 3) Develop the program design document describing the core content, scope, and methods and strategies; and 4) produce the new program. Lab- and school-based tests with middle school students demonstrated high ratings on usability parameters and immediate impact on selected psychosocial factors related to sexual behavior—perceptions of friends’ beliefs, reasons for not having sex, condom use self-efficacy, abstinence intentions, negotiating with others to protect personal rules, and improved knowledge about what constitutes healthy relationships (all p < .05). Youth rated IYG-Tech is favorably compared to other learning channels (>76.2% agreement) and rated the lessons as helpful in making healthy choices, selecting personal rules, detecting challenges to those rules, and protecting personal rules through negotiation and refusal skills (89.5% – 100%). Further efficacy testing is indicated for IYG-Tech as a potential strategy to deliver effective HIV/STI, and pregnancy prevention to middle school youth.

Efficacy of It's Your Game-Tech: A Computer-Based Sexual Health Education Program for Middle School Youth

“…Other topics covered in the IYG-Tech curriculum include the characteristics of healthy and unhealthy friendships and dating relationships; anatomy and reproduction; social, emotional, and physical consequences of sex; communication skills; Internet communication and safety; consequences of teen pregnancy and STIs; knowledge and skills for condom and contraception use; and condom negotiation. Details about the development of IYG-Tech , including the adaptation process, are available elsewhere [19]. …”

“…Evaluation in two randomized controlled trials revealed that IYG significantly delays sexual initiation among sexually inexperienced students [16, 17]. To develop IYG-Tech , we used Intervention Mapping (IM) [18] to assess existing IYG intervention planning matrices and to guide curriculum adaptation to a completely computer-based curriculum [19]. Our usability study of IYG-Tech found that most students liked the program (>70%) and perceived the program as credible, understandable, and just as much fun (if not more so) than other health lessons (>80%) [19].…”

“…To develop IYG-Tech , we used Intervention Mapping (IM) [18] to assess existing IYG intervention planning matrices and to guide curriculum adaptation to a completely computer-based curriculum [19]. Our usability study of IYG-Tech found that most students liked the program (>70%) and perceived the program as credible, understandable, and just as much fun (if not more so) than other health lessons (>80%) [19]. In the present study, we examined the behavioral (delay in sexual initiation and reduction of sexual risk behavior) and psychosocial effects of IYG-Tech .…”

Youth, Technology, and HIV: Recent Advances and Future Directions

“…It’s Your Game (IYG)-Tech is a stand-alone, 13-lesson Internet-based sexual health life-skills curriculum for middle school youth (59). IYG-Tech was adapted from It’s Your Game… Keep it Real, a middle school sexual health curriculum shown to delay sexual behavior (60, 61).…”

Promoting Parent–Child Sexual Health Dialogue with an Intergenerational Game: Parent and Youth Perspectives

“…16,27 Computer gamebased sexual health interventions have demonstrated impact on delayed initiation of sex, risk reduction behaviors in sexually active youth, and/or improved knowledge, attitudes, and intentions regarding these behaviors. [28][29][30][31][32][33][34] However, they have primarily targeted youth. An intergenerational game (IGG) is a game that provides an inclusive and shared entertainment experience that is appealing across developmental ages from children to adults, representing a common ''meeting ground'' for families.…”