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Abstract
Public health researchers most often take a risk-based approach to adolescent sexuality, framing it in terms of disease, pregnancy and negative health outcomes. The overall purpose of the present study is to understand the external and internal factors that shape the sexual self-awareness of Black adolescent females by addressing the following questions with a sex-positive framework: How do Black women in their recollections as Black girls perceive and internalize their lived experiences of sexual desire and pleasure? How do Black women in their recollections as Black girls create meaning around desire and pleasure within the context of the dimensions of sexual wellness: physical, social, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and environmental? This qualitative study included the following methods of data collection: interview, demographic survey, Female Sexual Subjectivity Inventory scale, and journal entries. Each case represented the recollections of Black women as Black girls, from the ages of 10 to 19 years old. This study revealed an immense variability among the 10 participants sexual experiences. The participants overwhelming lack of knowledge about their bodies and the human sexual response. Participants shared similar narratives about the lack of information and communication about sex with their parents. Participants reported prioritizing their partners pleasure over their own pleasure in early and middle adolescence. However, as the participants transitioned into late adolescence, their narratives were more reflective of sexual reciprocity. participants reports of mixed messages from parents, church, and media. These mixed messages lead to largely negative feelings and associations about their sexuality. Participants reported varying amounts of sexual agency in relation to the internalized messages they received regarding sexual desire and pleasure from parents, religious sources, peers, and media. Despite reports of ambivalence in knowledge about their bodies and the human sexual response, entitlement to self and partnered pleasure, and self-efficacy to achieve pleasure in early and middle adolescence, as participants entered late adolescents there was a visual shift in a healthier perception of sexual desire and pleasure. An integrative model of Black Feminist Thought and the dimensions of sexual wellness illustrates a sex-positive approach to the sexual health and well-being of young Black women.