| Summary: | Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) === College students demonstrate a persistent lack of knowledge about safe sexual
practices and engage in sexual behavior that puts them at risk for preventable health
issues, specifically, sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancy.
Fortunately, physicians have an opportunity to provide accurate and timely information
about safe sexual behavior to individuals in their care. However, many young people, and
in particular young women, are reticent to talk to their physicians about sexual behavior
because they typically consider the information to be private. They draw thick privacy
boundaries around this information, leading to a missed opportunity to communicate
about sexual behavior with their healthcare provider. Exacerbating this issue is the fact
that many physicians are also uncomfortable discussing sexual topics with their patients.
In this dissertation, Communication Privacy Management (CPM) theory is used to
investigate the criteria that female college students employ to negotiate the disclosure and
concealment of information about sexual behavior to physicians. Qualitative analysis of
open-ended interviews with female college students were used to describe and explain the
way college students perceive issues concerning disclosure of sexual behaviors to their
physician. These findings have the potential to improve communication interventions
both for female college students and healthcare professionals. === 2021-10-03
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