Optional campus sexual health survey to hit student emails this week

January 13, 2015

Guest post courtesy of IU Communications colleague Milana Katic:

The Center for Sexual Health and Promotion at Indiana University’s School of Public Health-Bloomington will be sending out the Campus Sexual Health Survey to IU student email addresses starting this week.

The survey is completely optional and will be addressing a range of sexual health issues relevant to many college students today including STI testing, contraception, condom use, sexual assault, LGBT harassment, abstinence and perceptions of hooking up, as well as sexual satisfaction and relationship happiness.

“To my knowledge, this is the first time that a campus-wide survey has taken such a broad approach to sexual health and behavior here at IU,” said Debby Herbenick, associate professor at the School of Public Health and director of the Center for Sexual Health and Promotion. Herbenick’s team at the center also administers the National Survey for Sexual Health and Behavior, a large, nationally representative study of the sexual lives of Americans ages 14 through 94.

Additionally, Herbenick noted that the campus survey will allow the team at the Center for Sexual Health Promotion to examine how students are similar to or different from their peers across the country. Survey findings will also help the researchers identify areas of strength at the IU Bloomington campus in regards to sexual health, in addition to areas that can be improved to better serve the student population.

“We feel fortunate to work in a department, a school, and a university that each have a long history of valuing sexual health as an important part of public health and well-being,” Herbenick said. “Since 2009, we have been tracking sexual health indicators for Americans of all ages, and it’s our responsibility to attend to our local campus community too.”

Once collected, the data will be shared with the student body, faculty and staff at the IU Health Center and the School of Public Health, and other academic and administrative departments who can make use of the data in class or campus programming.

The survey will be open for approximately two weeks, and should take about 10 minutes for students to complete. About 75 percent of the student population who are 18 and older will be invited to participate, and the answers of students who choose to take the survey will be completely anonymous. In an effort to keep research funds local, students who complete the survey will be eligible to win a gift card to Bloomington businesses such as local restaurants and shops, or alternatively, an Amazon gift card.

The Campus Sexual Health survey will be released in collaboration with the IU Office of Undergraduate Education and the Center for Survey Research.

For more information, contact Debby Herbenick at debby@indiana.edu.

Tags: Campus Sexual Health Survey, Center for Sexual Health Promotion, Debby Herbenick, IU School of Public Health-Bloomington, relationships, sex, sexuality