[Selection of peer educators for sex education program-based on data from social network analysis among college freshmen students].

Objective: Through combining the results from social network analysis and willingness of the key actors, peer educators for sex education among freshmen to select peer educators for sex education. Methods: Self-developed questionnaires were used to collect information on related demographics, egocentric social networks and whole class-based unit-network. Descriptive analysis was applied. UCINET 6 was used to conduct social network analysis and to draw the whole networking graphs. Results: Classmates appeared as the most important behavior intimate social network (95.8% claimed they could potentially borrow money from them, and 96.6% often went out with them) and were the most important members who could share privacy information with (91.6%) and consulting for private health information on (89.1%), among freshmen students in college. Finally, 17 freshmen were selected to have become peer educators, with 10 of them as the committee members in the class. Conclusion: Classmates formed the most important social network among freshmen students in college. Social network analysis could be used to help identify the suitable peer educators.