Testing a Risky Sex Behavior Intervention Pilot Website for Adolescents.

Background and purpose: Each year, teenagers account for about one-fifth of all unintended pregnancies in the United States. As such, delivering sexual risk reduction educational materials to teens in a timely fashion is of critical importance. Web-based delivery of these materials shows promise for reaching and persuading teens away from risky sexual and substance abuse behaviors. The purpose of this study was to pilot test a web-based program aimed at reducing risky sexual behavior and related outcomes among adolescents in a high school setting.

Methods: A beta-test of the website was conducted in three public schools in New Mexico, USA with 173 students in 9^th and 10^th grades recruited from existing health education classes. Participants spent approximately three hours over a period of two days completing the online program in school computer labs.

Results: Pretest to posttest results indicated that self-efficacy for condom use and condom use intentions, two theoretical mediators of changes in condom use behavior, were significantly changed. Adolescents also reported high satisfaction with the website content.

Conclusion: BReady4it provided an innovative sex and substance abuse education to teenagers that revealed promising positive changes in cognitive constructs that are inversely related to risky sexual behavior among users.