UBCO study finds sex ed fails 2SLGBTQIA+ students

Yet they show higher sexual health literacy than other students

 Hodgson notes this lack of inclusive sex education is happening amid a hostile political climate in parts of Canada and North America, where anti-queer and anti-trans rhetoric is on the rise.

University of British Columbia Okanagan campus

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Undergraduate student researchers Laura Moore, left, and Phoebe Hodgson, centre, examined how 2SLGBTQIA+ young adults feel excluded by their high school sex education lessons. Dr. Jessica Lougheed, right, is the supervising professor in this research.

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Credit: UBCO photo

A new student-led study from UBC Okanagan has found that young adults who identify as 2SLGBTQIA+ report receiving significantly less affirming and inclusive sexual health education than their cisgender, heterosexual peers.

Yet these same students demonstrate higher levels of sexual health literacy.

The study, led by Phoebe Hodgson, a recent UBCO graduate in gender, women and sexuality studies with a minor in psychology, looks at how young adults with different gender and sexual identities experienced sexual education during their high school years.

The research was co-authored by Laura Moore, also a recent graduate and current lab coordinator, and supervised by Dr. Jessica Lougheed, a Michael Smith Health Research BC Scholar and an Assistant Professor of Psychology in the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

Hodgson explains that the research team expected 2SLGBTQIA+ young adults to feel excluded from the sex education they received, but the results were unexpected.

“What surprised us is that they knew more about sexual health than their cisgender, heterosexual peers. At first, I thought, ‘Yay! Queer people know about sexual health.’ But then I realized this is because sex education has failed us—we’ve had to educate ourselves.”

The study found that 2SLGBTQIA+ participants were more likely to use the internet and social media for sexual health information compared to other young adults. However, there were no major differences between the groups when it came to learning from parents, peers or television and film. Despite the lack of affirming school-based education, 2SLGBTQIA+ respondents scored higher on a sexual health literacy questionnaire.

Participants also reported on their sexual health behaviours. 2SLGBTQIA+ students said they used some safer sex practices more often than their heterosexual, cisgender peers, but overall, safer sex practices were low across all groups.

“Higher internet use for sexual health information is a symptom of a problem, not a solution,” Hodgson explains. “I’m glad online resources exist to fill the gaps, but school-based education should be comprehensive, accurate and inclusive of all identities.”

The research shows a gap in educational content and a wider public health issue. Hodgson notes this lack of inclusive sex education is happening amid a hostile political climate in parts of Canada and North America, where anti-queer and anti-trans rhetoric is on the rise.

“Sexual health affects everyone,” she adds. “We hope our findings inform curriculum reform, educational policy and future research. Comprehensive sexual health education is a human right.”

Dr. Lougheed notes that 2SLGBTQIA+ young adults show resilience by educating themselves, but warns this self-reliance can be risky.

“When inclusive education is missing, 2SLGBTQIA+ youth look elsewhere. But that can be a problem if the information isn’t accurate or age-appropriate,” says Dr. Lougheed.

Since publication, the team has shared research in accessible formats—like posters, brochures and infographics—to reach educators, policymakers and community groups. Their goal is to keep the conversation going beyond universities.

The full study appears in the Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality. The research was also presented at the Inaugural Conference for Critical Social Justice in Psychology at UBC Vancouver.

The team plans to launch a follow-up study that explores why young adults, of all identities, may not practice safer sex.

“Nothing is going to change if we don’t address how school-based sex education overlooks queer youth,” says Hodgson. “Sex is a taboo topic, but it shouldn’t be.”

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Journal

The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality

DOI

10.3138/cjhs-2025-0037 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Sexual health literacy and access to inclusive education: Investigating disparities between cisgender heterosexual and 2SLGBTQIA+ young adults

 

New USF study: Rapid change makes leaders seem less authentic

Employees trust gradual growth more than overnight changes

University of South Florida

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Danbee Chon, assistant professor of management, University of South Florida Muma College of Business

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Credit: USF

Click here for the press kit, including a PDF of the journal article

Key takeaways:

• Slow and steady change builds credibility: Employees view gradual behavior changes as more genuine than rapid shifts, even when they’ve asked for those changes.
• Quick fixes can backfire: Leaders who alter their behavior too quickly risk being seen as insincere — especially when the change is difficult.
• Authenticity keeps communication open: When employees believe a leader’s growth is genuine, they’re more likely to keep sharing feedback and speaking up.

TAMPA, Fla. (Oct. 7, 2025) – When it comes to giving feedback, especially to bosses, employees want their voices heard. Some crave more coaching. Others seek a better leader-team connection. Still others pine for managers who inspire, while practicing patience.

But leaders shouldn’t rush to change their behaviors too fast, according to new research from the University of South Florida. If change happens too quickly, skepticism may arise, and employees are likely to believe it’s too good to be true.

Published in the Academy of Management Journal, the authors found that employees see quick change in response to feedback as less authentic than gradual change.

“For leaders, sometimes it’s not enough to just change. We have to consider how it might also be perceived, and people believe that true change takes time,” said lead author Danbee Chon, assistant professor of management in the Muma College of Business.

The results are from three studies in which Chon and co-authors Ovul Sezer of Cornell University and Francis J. Flynn of Stanford University examined how leaders respond to employee concerns. The first study surveyed 205 doctoral students from research universities. The other studies sampled over 2,000 employees using leadership action plans written by real executives in response to 360-degree feedback.

Conventional wisdom suggests managers should make swift changes in response to feedback, to show employees that their concerns have been taken seriously. But surprisingly, the opposite seems to hold true.

The study’s findings showed:

• Leaders who jump too fast to change their behaviors are seen as less authentic, even when employees ask for those changes.
• Employees viewed managers who make swift changes as less sincere, while a slower, gradual rate rings true.
• The “authenticity penalty” is especially strong when the change is difficult.
• Genuine change is what keeps employees speaking up.

Chon noted that the study’s conclusions relate to voluntary feedback concerning a leader’s behavior. The authors believe that changes in response to feedback related to other concerns, such as routine business operations, may yield different results, because such changes may not require “changes in the leader’s core sense of self.”

Chon said they do not recommend leaders always take a slow approach to a change in behavior. Instead, consider the trade-offs when deciding which approach makes the most sense.

“When change is easy, leaders who change rapidly may be viewed as less authentic, but more responsive — enabling employees to feel seen and heard,” she said. “Authenticity is one — important, but nevertheless, one — facet of leader evaluations.”

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About the University of South Florida

The University of South Florida is a top-ranked research university serving approximately 50,000 students from across the globe at campuses in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota-Manatee and USF Health. In 2025, U.S. News & World Report recognized USF with its highest overall ranking in university history, as a top 50 public university for the seventh consecutive year and as one of the top 15 best values among all public universities in the nation. U.S. News also ranks the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine as the No. 1 medical school in Florida and in the highest tier nationwide. USF is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), a group that includes only the top 3% of universities in the U.S. With an all-time high of $738 million in research funding in 2024 and as a top 20 public university for producing U.S. patents, USF uses innovation to transform lives and shape a better future. The university generates an annual economic impact of more than $6 billion. USF’s Division I athletics teams compete in the American Conference. Learn more at www.usf.edu.

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Journal

Academy of Management Journal

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Not So Fast? Rapid Response to Voice Leads to Perceived Inauthenticity

 

FIU cybersecurity researchers develop midflight defense against drone hijacking

Florida International University

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FIU cybersecurity researchers developed SHIELD, a real-time defense system against drone hijacking. The research team from L-R: PhD candidate Jean Tonday Rodriguez, undergraduate student Mohammad Kumail Kazmi, lead researcher and associate professor Mohammad Ashiqur Rahman and PhD candidate Muneeba Asif.

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Credit: Chris Necuze/FIU

MIAMI (Oct. 7, 2025) – As drones become increasingly common in U.S. skies – delivering packages, inspecting bridges, even monitoring crops – the danger of cyberattacks has grown too. A drone hijacked by hackers could suddenly veer off course, speed up, stall in midair, or crash. Once compromised, the machine is useless, often left as little more than expensive junk.

Florida International University researchers have found a way to fight back. At the IEEE International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks, FIU computer scientists unveiled SHIELD, a defensive system that can detect and neutralize cyberattacks on drones in real time and, crucially, allow the drone to finish its mission.

“Without robust recovery mechanisms, a drone cannot complete its mission under attacks, because even if it is possible to detect the attacks, the mission often gets terminated as a fail-safe move,” said Mohammad Ashiqur Rahman, lead researcher and associate professor in FIU’s Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences. “What’s important about our framework is that it helps the system recover, so the mission can be completed.” 

Safeguarding the security of drones may soon become more important than ever before.  This summer, the Federal Aviation Administration proposed expanding commercial drone use across industries. From Amazon to agriculture, the FAA expects more businesses to deploy unmanned aircraft, raising urgent questions about safety in the face of increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.

Traditionally, attack detection has revolved around sensors that help the drone perceive its surroundings and fly safely but can be easily manipulated. SHIELD goes further, monitoring the drone’s entire control system. It detects abnormalities not just in sensors but also in hardware, where hackers often try to hide their tracks. A sudden battery surge or overheating processor, for instance, may signal an attack underway.

The system then uses machine learning to diagnose the type of assault, much like a doctor identifying an illness. Each attack leaves behind a unique signature, and SHIELD responds with a tailored recovery protocol. In lab simulations, the FIU team’s approach identified attacks in an average of 0.21 seconds and restored normal flight in 0.36.

Next, Rahman’s research group at FIU will scale up testing, preparing SHIELD for real-world deployment. With drones poised to reshape commerce, infrastructure monitoring, and disaster response, FIU researchers say securing them is no longer optional.

“Reliable and secure drones are the key to unlocking future advancements,” Rahman said. “It’s our hope this work can play a role in moving the industry forward.”

Multimedia assets, including photos and video for media use, are available here.

For more information about this study, please visit https://go.fiu.edu/droneresearch.

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DOI

10.1109/DSN64029.2025.00070 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

"I will always be by your side": A Side-Channel Aided PWM-based Holistic Attack Recovery for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Kennesaw State researcher aims to discover how ideas spread in the digital age

The research is funded through a collaborative National Science Foundation grant to explore information diffusion

Kennesaw State University

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Mehmet Aktas

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Credit: Matt Yung / Kennesaw State University

From viral videos to debates over new products, ideas move faster than ever in today’s digital age. Mehmet Aktas, an associate professor of data science and analytics, is leading National Science Foundation-funded research that looks into how those ideas spread, evolve, and shape communities.

Funded through a collaborative NSF grant, Aktas is working with colleagues from Georgia State University and Georgia Gwinnett College to explore new ways of modeling information diffusion.

Aktas’s project studies how information flows within networks of people. Traditional approaches treat communication like a chain of one-to-one interactions, but research shows ideas are often exchanged in groups.

The team is using a new mathematical tool called the “sheaf Laplacian,” which allows them to represent group interactions with far more accuracy than older methods. The tool helps distinguish whether a message being passed is supportive, misleading, or contradictory. This makes it possible to explain why communities and certain voices polarize or gain influence on certain topics.

“Instead of looking at a simple phone call between two people, we’re analyzing how group discussions shape the spread of ideas,” Aktas said. “That gives us a more realistic picture of how communities interact online or in settings like classrooms and health care teams.”

There are many potential applications. Businesses could use these models to decide which influencers to partner with when launching new products. Hospitals could better match patients with the right providers. Policymakers and community leaders could also use the findings to understand how misinformation spreads and to encourage more responsible communication.

Each institution in the project brings unique expertise. Georgia State University contributes artificial intelligence expertise, Georgia Gwinnett College leads the theoretical side, and Kennesaw State University drives the data science applications.

Yiming Ji, interim dean of KSU’s College of Computing and Software Engineering, said Aktas’s work reflects the type of impactful research the college aims to support.

“Dr. Aktas’s research represents the very best of CCSE’s mission, blending strong theory with practical applications that can improve society,” Ji said. “By studying how information spreads across communities, his work not only advances scientific knowledge but also provides tools that can guide better decision-making in business, health care, and civic life.”

Aktas has received a startup grant to recruit graduate and undergraduate researchers. With the anticipated opening of the new Interdisciplinary STEM Building, he expects even greater opportunities for collaboration.

“Data science at KSU is vibrant and collaborative,” Aktas said. “Our project will bring in new students, spark fresh conversations, and help us better understand the networks that affect all of our lives.”