Graduation Year
2015
Document Type
Thesis
Degree
M.A.
Degree Name
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Degree Granting Department
Anthropology
Major Professor
Roberta Baer, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Eric Walsh-Buhi, MPH, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Nancy Romero-Daza, Ph.D.
Keywords
sexual health, risk perception, risk communication, health promotion, applied anthropology, public health
Abstract
This study investigates how heterosexual young people understand and manage risks related to meeting sexual partners online in the United States. The purpose of this study is to help inform the development of culturally-appropriate sexual risk communication and health promotion messages for young people by linking public health knowledge of adolescent sexual health and eHealth with anthropological theories of risk. With qualitative data from two rounds of semi-structured interviews and two group interviews with university students in central Florida, this study shows how young people experience and prioritize more social-emotional risks in meeting online-to-offline sexual partners compared to physical risks. The prominence of these social-emotional risks implies the need for more health promotion messages that incorporate both physical and social-emotional health risk communication.
Scholar Commons Citation
Marwah, Elizabeth Vp, "Understanding How Young People Experience Risk with Online-to-Offline Sexual Encounters: A Second Qualitative Phase for the CH@T Project" (2015). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/5988
