Promoting Sexual Health Knowledge through a Social Workers’ Mentorship Programme: A Study of Gay Young Adults

Abstract

Mentorship of counselling for men who have sex with other men and gay youths is understudied. The purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of how the Mentor Modelling Programme may increase the sexual health knowledge and practices of gay youths. As an expansion of a previous study with the application of the conceptual framework, this study mapped a sexual health promotion plan and the six-month-long Mentor Modelling Programme with the coordination of eight health and social care professionals and 40 gay youths. The researcher found positive and supportive feedback of how the Mentor Modelling Programme could increase sexual health knowledge, promote long-term relationships, and encourage referral of other vulnerable people. The results indicated two directions. The first solicited the perspectives of health and social care professionals and gay youths on how they would describe the relationship, application to, and experience of the Mentor Modelling Programme and second, assessed how this Mentor Modelling Programme influenced and changed the ideas and senses about counselling services and mentorship. This study reflected the current limited sexual promotion between traditional and inclusive sexual health materials. It further indicated the necessary concerns and areas of attention needed to upgrade the materials and host inclusive sexual health materials for both youths and adults in the communities.

The Impact of Role Models and Mentors on the Mental and Physical Wellbeing of Sexual and Gender Minorities

“…The most common reason for exclusion was outcomes not relevant for our review, such as the impact of role modelling or mentorship on educational attainment or employment status. There were 12 studies included, nine of which presented qualitative data [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] and three of which presented quantitative data [33][34][35].…”

“…There was a large variation in sample size, with some studies reporting a recruitment pool of six participants [28], and others as high as four hundred forty-seven (33). The impact of role modelling for men attracted to or displaying sexual behaviour with other men was reported in four studies [26,27,32,35]; in three studies, the participants were women attracted to other women [24,28,31]; three studies collected data on mixed SGMs [25,29,33]; and one study reported mixed sexual minorities (gay, lesbian or bisexual) [34]. None of the included papers reported the recruitment of intersex or asexual participants.…”

“…Two studies presented qualitative data pertaining to the impact of role models or mentors on sexual health [26,31]. Both studies reported that role models or mentors increase sexual health knowledge.…”

The Attitudes and Experiences of Marriage and Family Counselors for Same-Sex Couple and Family Clients: A Qualitative Study

“…A previous study (Stults et al, 2020) indicated that heterosexual and homosexual couples have affairs and cheat regardless of their sexual orientation. A recent study (Compton & Bowman, 2017) showed that heterosexual individuals have a negative perception of and biases against same-sex couples and families and concluded that homosexual individuals are more likely to cheat on their partner (Dos Santos, 2020bSantos, , 2021. Therefore, this stigma and bias indirectly influence how these counselors describe their understanding and attitudes toward same-sex couples and families.…”

“…Another factor was the unsafe sexual activities and illnesses of same-sex couples and families, and sexual minorities (Dos Santos, 2020bSantos, , 2021. Although most participants, when it came to illness caused by unsafe sexual behavior, did not discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation, it is worth noting that more than a quarter expressed their concerns about the relationship between sexual minorities and unsafe sexual activities, as can be seen from the following feedback:…”