Positive Sexuality in Adolescence Scale (PSAS) for Black Girls in the US
This year we will be working on adapting the Positive Sexuality for Adolescence Scale (PSAS) to assess the Black adolescent girls’ experiences of positive sexuality. The PSAS covers a variety of positive sexuality concepts, measures resilience, and is based in the developmental context of adolescence. While the PSAS can be applied to diverse populations, the goal of the present study is to partner with Black girls and community stakeholders to adapt the scale to fit the unique experiences of Black adolescent girls.
The project will consist of 5 phases, including focus groups, interviews, and online surveys. We will use findings from each phase to eliminate existing survey items and develop additions to improve the original PSAS scale. The major output from this project is a new, validated Adapted Positive Sexuality in Adolescence Scale (A-PSAS) for use with Black adolescent women and girls in the US to assess changes in attitudes toward positive adolescent sexuality. We will leverage the adapted scale for future work to implement evaluation interventions aimed at increasing the acceptability of a positive adolescent sexuality framework.
For Us by Us: Black Girls Defining Sexual and Reproductive Well-being
In this project, we are partnering with Black adolescent girls to define the concept of sexual and reproductive well-being. We will engage Black adolescent girls in a way that acknowledges and centers their strengths, assets, and voices, while also accounting for how discrimination based on race, class, gender, and other aspects of identity affect health and well-being. To achieve these goals, we will bring together our Youth Advisory Board members (n=15) for a series of focus group discussions to define the concept of “sexual well-being.” In partnership with the group, we will create a draft definition and conceptual model of sexual well-being. We will then host a community event with public and reproductive health experts, advocates, and community organizers to discuss our findings, refine the model, and generate ideas for future work. The definition and conceptual model, created through this project, will be used to guide the development of future interventions to improve the sexual and reproductive well-being of Black adolescent girls.
BIRCWH Study
We have an upcoming study on Black girls, women and sexual development. We are interested in learning more about Black women and girls’ experiences of sexual development and gaining a better understanding of how Black women and girls learn about and talk about sex. We will conduct one-on-one interviews with girls and women. We will then conduct 4 digital storytelling (DST) workshops with both age groups. Digital stories are short, participant produced videos about a lived experience. Digital stories include pictures, videos, music, text and participant voiceover. The DST workshops will include 8-10 participants and will last 4-5 sessions. Following the completion of the workshops, we will conduct follow up interviews with a subset of participants from each DST workshop.
Youth Advisory Board (YAB)
Core to the ethos of Girlx Lab is our commitment to developing impactful research and programming in partnership with community. The Girlx Lab Youth Advisory Board (YAB) provides Black adolescent girls space to voice their perspectives about sexual and reproductive health inequities, learn more about public health topics, and provide input on Girlx Lab’s qualitative and quantitative sexual health research projects.
The YAB is comprised of a group of 12-15 Black adolescent girls (aged 14-19) who meet twice monthly throughout the academic school year. The current Youth Advisory Board will work together from September 2024 - June 2025. Meetings occur twice monthly, once virtually after school in the evening and once in-person on the weekend. Meetings include interactive activities, facilitated discussions, short lectures on public health and reproductive justice topics, and time for research feedback. This year, we will be exploring new ways to further incorporate YAB members into the design and implementation of our work. In appreciation for the time and expertise provided by our youth, YAB members will be compensated at a rate of $25/hr.