Assessment of the Reach, Usability, and Perceived Impact of “ Talking Is Power ”: A Parental Sexual Health Text-Messaging Service and Web-Based Resource to Empower Sensitive Conversations with American Indian and Alaska Native Teens

Background: Early sexual debut among American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) adolescents has been associated with an increased risk of teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, along with an increased risk of having multiple lifetime sexual partners, and engaging in greater frequency of sex, substance abuse, and lack of condom use. A major protective factor against early sexual debut among AI/AN youth is the familial system. Interventions aiming to improve parent–child communication and parental warmth toward adolescent sexual health topics were reported to contribute to positive youth sexual health outcomes, specifically among minority youth. Healthy Native Youth thus developed the Talking is Power text-messaging service to guide parents and caring adults on how to initiate sensitive topics with youth and how to support them in making informed decisions regarding sex and healthy relationships. Methods: Descriptive statistics were used to demonstrate website analytics and reach per views and time spent on each page, and for displaying participants’ responses to the questions on the usability of the Talking is Power text-messaging series. To assess the perceived impact of the series, the differences in mean percentage scores of the question assessing parental comfort in engaging in sexual health topics with youth between pre- and post-intervention were calculated using two-sample t -tests of equal variances. Descriptive content analysis was adopted to highlight emerging themes from open-ended items. Results: When looking at reach, 862 entrances were recorded during the specified time period (5.8% of total entrances to HNY website), while the bounce rate was set at 73.1% (22.6% greater than the industry average), and the exit rate was 54.3% (15.2% greater than the industry average). Series usability was highly ranked on the 5-Likert scale in terms of signing up for a similar series on a different topic, quality of images, texts, and links, relating to prompts, and change in sparking sensitive conversations with youth. High likelihood of recommending the series to a friend or colleague was also reported by participants (0–10). No significant difference in parental comfort levels was reported ( p = 0.78 > 0.05). Main themes provided suggestions for improving the series mode of delivery, while others included positive feedback about the material, with the possibility of expanding the series to other adolescent health topics. Conclusion: Lessons learned during the design, dissemination, and evaluation of the resource’s usability, reach, and perceived impact may be of interest to other Indigenous communities who are in the process of adapting and/or implementing similar approaches.