Healthy Relationships

The Healthy Relationships Study produced, and pilot tested an online education module for 14- to 18-year-old high school-attending US youth about sexually explicit media and HIV/STI risk behaviors. We collected formative data from youth and school administrators and teachers, expert feedback, and pilot-test the intervention with a sample of high school students. The goal was to produce a new and innovative HIV prevention approach within a sexual health wellness framework (e.g., sex ed) that will help to build connections with community-based partners (e.g., school systems) to prevent new HIV infections among adolescents.

MPI: Kimberly Nelson & Emily Rothman

This work is funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (R21HD105482).

Nelson, K.M., Campbell, J.K., Dunsiger, S., Frieson, T.M., Saber, R., Macapagal, K., & Rothman, E.F. (2025). The Healthy Relationships Program: A pilot study of a healthy relationships, HIV/STI prevention, and pornography education program for high schoolers. American Journal of Sexuality Education. Epub ahead of print. DOI: 10.1080/15546128.2025.2493652

Nelson, K.M., Campbell, J.K., Rahimian, A.N., Frieson, T.M., Moslander, D.E., Richardson, V.E., & Rothman, E.F. (2025). “We’re all still learning about how to talk about porn”: Teacher and administrator perspectives about inclusion of education about pornography in Massachusetts high school sex education programs. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 22: 413-422. doi: 10.1007/s13178-024-00944-1

Rothman, E.F., Campbell, J.K., Rahimian, A.N., Frieson, T.M., Moslander, D.E., Richardson, V.E., & Nelson, K.M. (2024). “My sex ed teacher was extremely averse to talking about sex”: Massachusetts students’ experiences with and recommendations for sex education. American Journal of Sexuality Education, 19(3): 265–279. DOI: 10.1080/15546128.2023.2243807