“Using Contraception Can Save Your Life:” A Pilot Inquiry into the “Facts” about Sex That Florida Undergraduate Students Think They Know

Objectives: Sex education continues to be inconsistently provided across the United States, with many states not even requiring that sex education be medically accurate. One population at high risk of experiencing the consequences of poor sex education is college students. The current study sought to assess the self-derived “sex facts” that college students feel they know. Methodology: Twenty college students were asked to name five things about sex, sexuality, sexual health, sexual behavior, sexual identity, or sexual anatomy that they were 100% sure were true, yielding a total of 96 answers for analysis. Results: Approximately 56% of their answers were true. The highest proportion of true answers was related to sexual identity topics (74%), while the lowest proportion (20%) was related to sensuality topics. The sexuality education implications of these results are discussed in detail.