Friends as Informal Educators: The Role of Peer Relationships in Promotion of Sexual Health Services among College Students

This ethnographic study of one United States university's sexual health resources explores the role of peer relationships in sexual health promotion to understand how these relationships shaped students' interactions with campus sexual health resources. Through analysis of seventeen semi-structured interviews with students, five policy interviews with providers and university personnel, and participant-observation of peer health educator training, the authors examine how trust in peer relationships can serve as a form of social capital to influence sexual health information sharing. The article introduces the term "peer administrator" to describe student actors who sit at the intersection of friend and official resource and explores the importance of these mentoring relationships for sexual health promotion. The analysis also considers how more individualistic models of public health promotion limit the impact of peer relationships and concludes with a discussion of how universities might imagine new forms of sexual health promotion among students.