No abstract

Despite peer education's having become an extremely common strategy on many college campuses, very few outcome evaluations of these programs, particularly evaluations that focus on the peers themselves, have been performed. In this article, we report on a study that measured changes in self-esteem, personal development, and sexual behavior over 1 academic year in 65 sexuality peer educators from 10 universities in the United States. Objective measures of those traits demonstrated a shift in a positive direction; after analysis, however, the changes were not statistically significant. Qualitative data described increased levels of self-esteem, confidence, and safer sexual behavior as a major outcomes of the program, reinforcing the notion of the positive effects of peer education. Implications for program enhancement and considerations of the importance of evaluation are discussed, and recommendations for future research are offered.

Six hundred twenty-seven sorority women were surveyed to determine if sorority members constituted a subgroup of college women who may be at increased risk for disordered eating. The sorority members were administered Body Mass Index Silhouettes and the Eating Disorder Inventory. The findings indicated that these sorority women may have a greater fear of becoming fat, are more dissatisfied with their bodies, and are more weight preoccupied and concerned with dieting than are college women from previous studies. The findings also suggested that body size perceptions were distorted among both underweight and overweight women and that thin was the ideal body profile for the majority of the women. Although bulimia scores were higher for this population than for those reported in all but one of the previous studies, these differences were not significant. More research and innovative programs designed to address weight-related attitudes and behaviors among this population are called for.

sexual health knowledge, behavior and sources of sexual health information survey was administered to 134 deaf and hard of hearing college students. Results indicated the students in this sample were not particularly well informed about sexual health and sexuality issues, were engaging in high risk sexual behaviors and relied primarily on peers for sexual health information. The need for the development of psychometrically sound measurement instruments for use with deaf populations as well as areas for future sexual health research are discussed.

The authors describe 255 students who voluntarily sought human immunodeficiency (HIV) antibody testing at a university health center. Fifty-nine percent of the students were women, their average age was 22.6 years, and they had low reported rates of unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Nearly one third of the students had been previously tested for HIV. Approximately 40% of students described sexual activities that placed them at some risk for HIV infection and other sexual problems, such as unintended pregnancy and STDs. None of the students expected that their HIV test results would be positive, and that proved to be the case. Results of this study are discussed with a view to the role of HIV testing and counseling in campus AIDS programming.