They Were the Best and the Worst of Times: Reflections Illuminate Emerging Adults’ Sexual Experiences

Human sexuality courses are offered at most universities. Students often bring a breadth of experiences and a need for emotional processing of these narratives into these courses as it relates to course content. The purpose of this study was to expand research exploring emerging adults’ sexuality narratives to be inclusive of positive stories. Guided by a semi-structured questionnaire, 113 students from two USA universities reflected in 2017 on their sexual history using an established educational activity asking students about their “best” and “worst” sexual experiences. Qualitative analysis resulted in five themes describing their “Best” and four themes describing their “Worst” sexual experiences and one theme with dual meaning. “Best of” was highlighted by student themes of romance, beyond intercourse, emotional intimacy, listening, and safety. “Worst of” was highlighted by themes of physical health factors, alcohol and/or substance use/misuse factors, exploitation and victimization, and feelings of shame. The dual meaning theme of firsts emerged in both best of and worst of. Findings suggest that human sexuality courses must consider students’ lived experiences. Further, we propose a call-to-action for clinically trained mental health professionals, such as social workers, as sexuality educators. Universities should incorporate sexual health education policies that acknowledge students who bring a collection of sexuality stories to learning spaces. Centering a student’s sexual voice also would support campus programs, policies, and interventions that benefit students. Finally, policies that guide professional accreditation of social work university programs to include sexual wellness content in the curricula are warranted.