Exploring the Reasons and Ways Puerto Rican College Students Search for Safer Sex Information

Abstract

Puerto Rican college-aged individuals experience high rates of sexually transmitted infections. Understanding how and why these individuals search for safer sex information will allow to effectively reach them through appropriate communication channels. This study explored the safer sex information-seeking behaviors of 20 Puerto Rican undergraduate college students at the University of Puerto Rico’s Rio Piedras campus through semi-structured, one-on-one in-depth interviews. A thematic analysis revealed that students were motivated to seek information for both personal reasons (e.g., being sexually active) and external reasons (e.g., a high school assignment). Results also suggest that source characteristics were more important than the sources themselves when searching for specific information. These findings align with Johnson’s Comprehensive Model of Information Seeking (Johnson, 1997), adding “external factors” to the model's antecedents. By adding this component, the model takes into consideration the unique information-seeking behaviors of college students. Our findings may help develop effective and appropriate health communication strategies and policies that target sexual health and safer sex behaviors among this understudied population, contributing to the scarce literature available on the topics of sexual health and health communications in the Puerto Rican community as a whole.