Sexuality education as developmentally appropriate in the American Catholic Higher Education Curriculum

Abstract

Scholars have urged institutions of higher learning to include academy engagement with sexuality education in recent years. While Catholic colleges and universities specifically express the concern for whole-person development, there has only been recent calls to include this topic when addressing student affairs. If left out of the larger curriculum, this part of the human experience can often be left unexamined. After identifying the agreement between the church and secular US national sex ed standards on developmentally appropriate sexuality education, I identify the breadth and complexity of what is meant by "sexuality" followed by the social and cognitive developmental theories that substantiate the need for sexuality information at the college level. I conclude with further support in church documents for the inclusion of sexuality education in Catholic higher learning for the more fully integrated experience of human sexuality.