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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

Sexual health survey to be sent to students

IU’s Center for Sexual Health and Promotion will be sending out an optional Campus Sexual Health Survey to 75 percent of students 18 years and older today.

The survey will address a variety of sexual issues college students might face while at school as well as after graduation, Debby Herbenick, Director of the Center for Sexual Health and Promotion, said.

These issues include condom use, sexually transmitted infection testing, sexual assault, pain during sex, perceptions of hooking up and more.

There is also a section where students can provide suggestions for how IU can be better about providing services and information, Herbenick said.

“The results will be used for research, but most importantly, we want to share the results with students,” Herbenick said. “We want them to be widely available for students, faculty and staff.”

Herbenick said the results will be shared specifically with faculty in the gender studies and related departments, but the survey is completely confidential.

No names or email addresses will be stored, only responses.

The Center also administers the National Survey for Sexual Health and Behavior, a national study for people ages 14 to 94.

The Center designed this survey to get a better understanding of sexual health on IU’s campus.

“They’re relevant to Americans, but not directly related to students on campus,” Herbenick said of the national surveys. “We wanted to do something local for students.”

The survey will not only help the group understand sexual health issues on IU’s campus, but will be able to compare the results with the national survey to see how IU students compare with other students in the nation.

Because sexual assault has been such a large topic on campus, Herbenick said they wanted to include it as a section on the survey.

Learning about other sexual health and stigma issues will help researchers learn more about sexual assault and harassment, ?she said.

“You have to understand the full spectrum of sexual behavior to understand unwanted sexual contact,” Herbenick said. “The more students that fill it out, the more helpful it will be.”

Students will have two weeks to fill out the survey once it is sent and will receive reminder emails a few times during that period, Herbenick said.

The survey is estimated to take students around 10 minutes to complete.

Students who complete the survey will be eligible to win a gift card to local Bloomington shops or ?restaurants.

A couple of weeks after the survey closes, the results should be available to the campus.

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