Iowa sociologist targets college students, communities for safe sex campaign

Casual relationships, or hooking up, have been linked to several physical and emotional repercussions among college students, according to research conducted at Iowa State University. Recently, Teresa Downing-Matibag, a sociologist at the school, took the results of her study and transformed them into a campus- and community-based safe sex campaign.

At the university, she currently teaches a course that educates students about ways to have healthier sexual relationships, and contributed to the establishment of Relationships on Campus, a student-run organization. She also launched Intimate Relationships, a program designed to promote sexual health in surrounding areas.

Downing-Matibag stated that "I want to promote a movement on campus that encourages students to be more reflective about the decisions they're making and the longer term implications of those decisions for their well-being." She added that not their sexual health isn't just at stake, "I'm talking about well-being in their future families and longer-term relationships."

Young people who are having unprotected sex and engaging in casual relationships may be putting themselves at an increased risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease (STD). Each year, approximately 19 million people in the U.S. test positive for an STD, and nearly half of them are aged 15 to 24, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports.