Why Should I Use This Website?
Teenage females today are a generation of individuals who want to experience situations immediately. Such “instant gratification” allows choices to be made prior to understanding the consequences of the decision. This is exemplified by the 12 million new STDs infections per year in teens that are sexually active and choose not to use condoms. It is believed that knowledge of the consequences prior to experiencing risky situations may alter a teen’s reaction to the incident, and allow them to respond more favorably towards behaviors that can negatively affect their health.
The development of a young adult’s risk behaviors is influenced by a complex set of biological, social, personality and behavioral factors. Studies reveal that high risk behaviors can be decreased by promoting motivation as well as refusal skills. Studies reveal that level of motivation, belief in the importance of an intervention and self-efficacy to use the intervention were the strongest predictors of consistent condoms use in adolescent mothers.
In the same way, education by simulation can help teens analyze a high risk behavior prior to experiencing the behavior first hand. Education will help build refusal skills and knowledge of the hardships associated with these behaviors may motivate a teen to use an intervention to avoid a potentially detrimental activity.
To date, prevention approaches have concentrated on providing information. The purpose of this site is to create an interactive web based series of hypothetical scenarios that an adolescent female may face during her teen years.
How Should I Use This Website?
As an educator you are in a position to show your students these scenarios and then use the information as template for further discussion on this and other topics. While there is no best way to use this website, we suggest that you have your students (and parents if you wish) discuss a few cases at a time. Then after the assignment is done use the case as a forum to allow teens to express their feelings. Use this discussion to solidify safe practices in your teen student’s minds.