Abstract

Peer education is a valued strategy for sexuality education and health promotion. Innovative approaches beyond traditional classroom settings offer critical opportunities to support adolescent sexual health. Yet, such models have been rarely used. It’s OK to Ask Someone (IOTAS) is the first to use customized software to enable youth to both ask and answer sexual health questions using cell phones. This article describes an evaluation aimed to understand high school peer educators’ experience staffing IOTAS and perception of how participation impacted their peer education training. Our findings suggest a value in direct peer education opportunities for participants through IOTAS in expanded education and skill development. The health promotion impact of sexuality education using cell phone interventions could be far-reaching for both peer education students and young people outside program participation.

摘要

同伴教育是性教育和健康促进的一项重要策略。超越传统课堂环境的创新方法为支持青少年性健康提供了重要机会。然而，此类模型很少被使用。It's OK to Ask Some (IOTAS)是第一个使用定制软件让青少年能够使用手机询问和回答性健康问题的公司。本文描述了一项评估，旨在了解高中同伴教育工作者配备IOTAS 的经验以及对参与如何影响他们的同伴教育培训的看法。我们的研究结果表明，通过IOTAS为参与者提供直接同伴教育机会的价值扩大教育和技能发展。使用手机干预进行性教育对健康促进的影响可能对同伴教育学生和项目参与之外的年轻人产生深远的影响。