How do college students reflect on the sex education they received throughout their adolescence and in what ways has it informed their current understandings and behaviors regarding sexual activity? In the United States, policy makers and educators as well as parents and the larger public are in the midst of a battle about sex education. Some believe that abstinence-only education is the best way to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted infections and teenage pregnancy, others argue that teaching about the pure science of sex will best suit our youth, while even others assert that a more holistic approach is the best. This research will focus on how young people reflect back on their sex education and how they feel that their sex education has helped or otherwise shaped their their viewpoints, understandings, and knowledge. This will be a retrospective study using cognitive sociology to understand how behaviors change over time and how they are related to psychosocial development. This study will be conducted by generating a series of focus groups of college-aged students and asking them questions about the type of sex education they received, how they feel it has affected them, and what current beliefs they hold about sex. In a time where teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections are at an all time high, it is important to understand both the statistical evidence of sex education's effectiveness, as well as how young people feel their sex education has prepared them for their early adulthood.
