Involvement and Young Adults Sexual Health Knowledge Article

Involvement and Young Adults Sexual Health Knowledge - Article Example Particular emphasis has been placed on social media artifacts because they are so heavily used by adolescents and young adults. In addition, individuals within this age group receive a large amount of their information from such sources. Prior to this study, researchers viewed the social media as negatively impacting the sexual decisions of young adults. Although there is the valid support for this supposition, the authors of this article suggest there may also be some positive effects of social media artifacts on this population. These effects include educating young adults about sexually transmitted diseases and offering the possible outcomes of premarital sex. Pointedly, the authors state that the majority of earlier research concentrated solely on the television as the primary source of information—there was no focus on magazines. Due to the broad range of sexual topics discussed in modern day magazines that are read by young adults, researchers postulate that these magazines may assist young adults with making decisions about sex such as discussing contraception options with a partner or choosing to refrain from sexual activity until marriage. Consequently, it can be correlated that an increase in magazi ne reading may lead to an increase in condom/contraceptive and more positive decisions concerning sexual health. Therefore, this article aims at understanding how magazines serve as constructive sources of information and enable young adults to make informed decisions about their sexual health. Throughout Studies 1 and 2, the authors hypothesized that â€Å"because of the coverage of sexual health issues in magazines †¦ reading certain genres of magazines (women’s lifestyle, teen, and men’s lifestyle) would be positively correlated with sexual health knowledge, safe-sex self-efficacy, safe-sex intentions, and contraceptive use† (p. 287).