Selection of peer educators for sex education program—based on data from social network analysis among college freshmen students / 中华流行病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective Through combining the results from social network analysis and willingness of the key actors,peer educators for sex education among freshmen to select peer educators for sex education.Methods Self-developed questionnaires were used to collect information on related demographics,egocentric social networks and whole class-based unit-network.Descriptive analysis was applied.UCINET 6 was used to conduct social network analysis and to draw the whole networking graphs.Results Classmates appeared as the most important behavior intimate social network (95.8％ claimed they could potentially borrow money from them,and 96.6％ often went out with them) and were the most important members who could share privacy information with (91.6％) and consulting for private health information on (89.1％),among freshmen students in college.Finally,17 freshmen were selected to have become peer educators,with 10 of them as the committee members in the class.Conclusion Classmates formed the most important social network among freshmen students in college.Social network analysis could be used to help identify the suitable peer educators.