Objective: To evaluate female students' expectations and experiences related to their sexual and reproductive health (SRH) during international travel. Participants: Female students from a US university with a history of sex with men completed a cross-sectional survey about their upcoming (Pre-travelers; n = 170) or recent (Travelers; n = 340)…

This article describes a novel virtual participatory action research (VPAR) approach to engaging youth who trade sex in Minnesota. The Minnesota Youth Sex Trading (MYST) Project switched to an entirely virtual format due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of an intergenerational team, Millennial and Generation Z researchers created a research-brand…

Communication with sexual partners about protection against sexually transmitted infections (STIs) is associated with safer sexual behaviors among general populations of youth, but little is known about partner communication among American Indian youth. We assessed the prevalence of adolescents' communication with sexual partners about STI…

Background: Sexual minority young people have demonstrated higher rates of emotional distress and suicidality in comparison to heterosexual peers. Research to date has not examined trends in these disparities, specifically, whether there have been disparity reductions or increases and how outcomes have differed over time by sex and sexual…

Background: Evidence suggests that sports team participation differentially relates to health-risk behaviors. Few studies have explored relationships among high-risk youth. Purpose: To examine associations between weekly sports team participation and health-risk behaviors (substance use, sexual risk-taking, violence involvement) among alternative…

Previous research, over a decade old, suggests students attending alternative high schools (AHS) engage in high levels of health-risk behaviors. Data from the 2007 Minnesota Student Survey for students attending AHS ("n" = 2,847) and traditional high schools (THS; "n" = 87,468) were used for this cross-sectional analysis to…

This study, using data from a statewide survey (n = 332), examined teachers' practices regarding the inclusion of guest speakers to cover sexuality content. More than half of teachers (58%) included guest speakers. In multivariate analyses, teachers who taught high school, had professional preparation in health education, or who received…

A teacher's capacity to provide sexuality education may be hampered or enhanced by a number of factors. A social-ecological framework can be used to understand these influences, and the present study assesses interpersonal, organisational/institutional and community/policy level influences on teaching sexuality education. Seven focus groups were…

The Minnesota Indian Women's Resource Center offers harm reduction programming to at-risk adolescent American Indian girls, including outreach, case management, advocacy, healthy sexuality education, and support groups. To evaluate program impact, participants are assessed at intake and every 6 months afterward for current vulnerability to…

Seven focus groups were conducted with sexuality educators in Minnesota to explore ways that teaching sexuality education differs from teaching other health education content and to determine if additional supports or resources are needed for sexuality educators. Teachers described many specific additional responsibilities or concerns related to…

This research clarifies the public support of comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) in terms of acceptance, content, timing, and effectiveness as it may inform practice in the United States. The historical context of public opinion, as well as a summary of the efficacy of abstinence only education (AOE) versus CSE in the scientific literature,…

Parent-adolescent communication about sexual health is one strategy to encourage healthy adolescent sexual behaviour. However, this literature has largely overlooked immigrant families. Hmong youth, identified as facing extreme challenges to parent-adolescent communication, are considered in the USA. Content analysis was used to examine…

This study created an alcohol use problem severity taxonomy and examined its association to engagement in other problem behaviors. Minnesota youths were categorized based on their frequency of alcohol use and DSM-IV alcohol abuse and dependence criteria. Greater alcohol use problem severity was generally associated with higher prevalence of…

The objective of this study was to describe prevalent informal sources of information about sex and examine associations between informal sources of information about sex and sexual risk outcomes among sexually experienced adolescents. Work involved the secondary analysis of data from the Minnesota Student Survey, a statewide survey to monitor…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify significant external and internal challenges that state organization leaders face in promoting science-based teen pregnancy prevention programs within their states. The state organization administrators were chosen because their organizations were funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control…