Applied Health Science postdoctoral research fellow Hannah Javidi, Ph.D. is expanding the creative possibilities of empowering adolescents in America to harness the power of sexual consent.
Dr. Javidi garnered nationwide attention being named one of this year’s Forbes Magazine 30 Under 30 in Healthcare for her creation of a digital program for people aged 14–17 to learn about sexual consent and encourage them to make healthy choices. Dr. Javidi is in her third and final year at SPH-B, and with encouragement from her postdoctoral mentor and Department of Applied Health Science Chair Eric Walsh-Buhi, Ph.D., took the initiative to nominate herself for the Forbes list last year.
"I knew I was under consideration for 30 Under 30, but it felt like such a long shot...not a lot of academics make the list, so I was very excited and also pretty surprised," says Dr. Javidi.
Dr. Javidi started making early career waves in 2023 when she was awarded a National Institutes of Health (NIH) five-year, nearly $1 million grant for the project "A digital health intervention to increase condom use among adolescent sexual minority males." This grant allows Dr. Javidi to expand on her existing consent education program to include condom negotiation content, tailored to the unique needs of gay, bisexual and queer teen boys.
"Adolescents are constant users of technology and social media, and it is really important to leverage that in our public health efforts," shares Dr. Javidi. "A lot of [the research] I have done is at that intersection of digital health and adolescent health, seeing how we can use apps and online interventions and programs to promote healthy sexual behaviors and beliefs."
Given the limitations of sexual consent education in the United States, Dr. Javidi thought it was important to create a digital platform for adolescents to "fill that gap" and provide the basics on what constitutes affirmative consent, identifying coercion, and how to communicate with a partner about desires and boundaries, such as condom use.
"This gives them a safe, judgement-free opportunity to practice their skills with a computer and not face-to-face with a teacher, parent, partner or peer," says Dr. Javidi."They are not getting high-quality information about this from schools or their parents, and other sources of information can be unreliable."
The adapted version of the program, which Dr. Javidi hopes to roll out by fall of this year, will be expanded to meet the needs of adolescent sexual minority males and discuss in detail how to confidently communicate to a partner the desire to use a condom.
"Oftentimes adolescents don’t know how to ask to use condoms. They feel awkward talking about it to their partner because it implies they don’t trust them, so they don’t take that risk because they want to keep the peace in the relationship and maintain harmony," says Dr. Javidi. "But they are putting themselves at risk by doing that, so we want to build up that confidence and have them feel comfortable advocating for the use of a condom, as well as refusing unwanted sexual activity or ending a sexual encounter halfway through if they decide they aren’t feeling it—all of which I see as a part of consent."
Dr. Javidi says the Forbes recognition allows her access to a free-of-charge network of professionals to support getting her program into the public sphere, as well as support her on the job market for a tenure-track assistant professor position.
"For instance, I was talking to someone from CVS Health and a great suggestion was made to have a QR code for the program placed next to condoms at CVS stores," says Dr. Javidi. "It is great to be in those spaces and have those conversations with like-minded individuals who are also working to improve the world."
Dr. Walsh-Buhi adds, "Dr. Javidi is an exceptional and promising early career scholar. This Forbes 30 Under 30 distinction is the next milestone in her already significant and impactful career, recognizing her dedication to advancing public health through innovative digital interventions."
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