Impact of social media usage on adolescent sexual and reproductive health

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F70883521%3A28130%2F20%3A63526361" target="_blank" >RIV/70883521:28130/20:63526361 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.34190/ESM.20.016" target="_blank" >http://dx.doi.org/10.34190/ESM.20.016</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.34190/ESM.20.016" target="_blank" >10.34190/ESM.20.016</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Impact of social media usage on adolescent sexual and reproductive health

Original language description

One of the critical stages in life is adolescence, since it is associated with many changes and first experiences. Information on how to handle the many changes with their attending desires is very essential. Guidance and counselling services as well as parents’ involvement are equally important factors to the adolescent. Due to this, the phenomenon has received some empirical study attention, and researchers have reported that Social Media (eg. WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn) usage among adolescents is on the ascendancy. These social media platforms offer many possibilities for many forms of communication to take place. Many scholars have studied the phenomenon in different geographical locations, focusing on various aspects and have emerged with different findings. However, there is paucity in research on the impact of social media usage on sexual and reproductive health information sharing among adolescents in Ghana. We explored the impact of social media usage by adolescents in Ghana. We also examined the kinds of SRH information shared by adolescents on social media. Four hundred adolescents (social media users), between the ages of 13 and 19 were sampled for the study. The results revealed that majority of respondents share sexual and reproductive health information regarding personal experiences with their friends through social media. WhatsApp was the medium mostly used for sharing ‘sensitive’ SRH information, followed by Facebook. We also found that adolescents share a lot of SRH information on social media. These include condom use, sexual experiences, abortion and changes during adolescence. There were significant differences among male and female adolescents on the kinds of information shared on social media. The findings of the study have direct implication for policy direction regarding Sexual and Reproductive Health information accessibility among adolescents in Ghana. Implications for parental involvement, organisation of frequent SRH awareness events as well as implications for guidance and counselling were outlined. © European Conference on Social Media, ECSM 2020.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

D - Article in proceedings

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

50401 - Sociology

Project

—

Continuities

S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach

Publication year

2020

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Article name in the collection

The European Conference on Social Media

ISBN

978-1-912764-63-1

ISSN

—

e-ISSN

—

Number of pages

9

Pages from-to

10-18

Publisher name

Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited

Place of publication

Reading

Event location

Larnaca

Event date

Jul 2, 2020

Type of event by nationality

EUR - Evropská akce

UT code for WoS article

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