Research Design: Interviews

The original interview data were collected from a sample of twelve (6 female) community college students and twenty (10 female) university students. Six students identified as Latino, nine students identified as African American, 16 students identified as White, and one student identified as Asian. Participants were recruited through on-campus student organizations. Using a phenomenological perspective (van Manen, 1984), based on the premise that the most meaningful reality is what one perceives it to be, the PI interviewed students individually to theoretical saturation, about their experiences with and understanding of experimentation. Students also completed a background questionnaire and a checklist assessing how frequently they participated in a variety of experimentation behaviors.

Analyses revealed that from the perspective of college students, there is a clear distinction between experimentation and risk-taking. Students described a deliberate and functional process of experimentation. To the contrary, they described risk-taking to be less likely to be planned and more often to involve having something to lose or compromise. Further, from their perspective, substance use, alcohol use, and sexual activity, behaviors that have typically been identified as negative risk-taking, are most often purposeful, affording them positive developmental opportunities (Dworkin, 2005). Students also described a deliberate and functional process of experimenting with eight behavioral domains: academic activities, substance and alcohol use, social activities, sexual activity, intimate relationships, extracurricular activities, religion, and politics, as they worked to figure out who they are.