Abstract
(1) Background: While there is a growing awareness of the rights of individuals with intellectual disabilities, very limited progress has been made in supporting these people to create and maintain intimate and personal relationships. (2) Methods: This paper reports the results from a program aimed at promoting responsible and consensual sexual relations of adults with intellectual disabilities. Of the 44 participants, 31.8% were women and 68.2% were men aged 22 to 67 years. Pre and post measurements regarding the attitudes toward sexual relations were taken, and difficulty and discrimination indexes were calculated. (3) Results: Statistically significant improvements were identified in the overall measurements, as were they for the domains of privacy, safety, and respect. The difficulty index changed from 0.67 to 0.79 in a pre-post assessment, denoting more positive attitudes. This and other results support the relevance and usefulness of the intervention program and encourage further intervention efforts.
Highlights
While there is growing awareness of these rights, very limited progress has been made in supporting these individuals in creating and maintaining intimate and personal relationships [2]
We offer the results derived from a program developed by the authors, based on these principles, as a framework for encouraging consensual and responsible sexual relationships among people with intellectual disabilities
Same-sex behaviors were reported in 4.5% cases (n = 2), heterosexual behaviors were reported in 47.7% cases (n = 21), and bisexual behaviors were reported in
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. In the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) [1], sexual health, security in relationships, and a meaningful social and intimate life are recognized rights for persons with disabilities. “States Parties shall take effective and appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against persons with disabilities in all matters relating to marriage, family, parenthood and relationships, on an equal basis with others” While there is growing awareness of these rights, very limited progress has been made in supporting these individuals in creating and maintaining intimate and personal relationships [2]. Sexuality is a matter of equity, rights, and ethics, especially when it refers to the sexuality of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities [3]
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