“Between TikTok and Textbooks: How Social Media and Sex Education Shape Contraceptive Practices and Knowledge among Young Adults in Ireland.”

As social media use continues to increase, young adults are exposed to a great amount of information on a daily basis. This can make it challenging to distinguish between reliable and unreliable sources. In order to investigate the impact of social media on the sexual health knowledge, I seek to understand the role of the time spent online as a possible influence on the contraceptive practices and knowledge within the Irish context. For this study, I rely on existing survey data from cohort ’98, wave 3 and 4 of Growing Up in Ireland. My paper analyses the association between attending Relational and Sexuality Education (RSE) and two outcomes: experienced pregnancies and STI prevention knowledge. In addition, I analyze whether the associations vary depending on the time spent online. While previous research has examined the relation between social media use and health knowledge, very little attention is given to the relationship between social media use and sexual health knowledge. The findings of my paper demonstrate evidence of a positive association between attending RSE and contraceptive knowledge regarding STI prevention (p = .049). The results also indicate that those who attended RSE are more likely to have experienced pregnancy (p .036), which may be related to young adults being sexually active at an early age. However, my analysis does not show evidence of a weaker or stronger association for young adults who spend time online. My study highlights how RSE contributes to the transmission of knowledge regarding sexual health knowledge, but also the need for further research into how social media may potentially contribute to contraceptive practices and knowledge.