Reproductive health knowledge and choices among undergraduate students: Designing educational resources and access to services to prevent unintended pregnancy
Contraception
Awarded 2018
Emerging Scholars in Family Planning
Melina Taylor, MA
University of South Florida
$7,289

This research project seeks to understand the reproductive healthcare needs of undergraduate students, determine the role that student health services currently provides in access to information and resources, and examine how state narratives regarding reproductive healthcare influence campus services at two large public universities: The University of South Florida and the University of Kentucky. Over the course of 12 months, online surveys, focus groups, semi-structure interviews, and participant observation will be utilized to apply a reproductive justice theoretical framework to conceptualize the needs of students along racial/ethnic backgrounds and sexual orientations. The Social Ecological Model will provide a framework to map different levels of influence on reproductive healthcare from students’ perceptions and their social support networks, through university resources and state political policies. An executive report will be presented to the universities’ student health services as the foundation to collaboratively design and implement a social marketing campaign targeting students’ access to reproductive healthcare resources.