Rehabilitation Counselor Knowledge, Comfort, Approach, and Attitude Toward Sex and Disability

Abstract

This study examined the effect of rehabilitation counseling students’ age, sex, disability status, geographic location, marital status, religion, sexual orientation, and level of sexuality training on knowledge, comfort, approach, and attitudes toward the sexuality of people with disabilities. Participants were 312 rehabilitation counseling master’s students in Council on Rehabilitation Education (CORE) accredited programs all over the United States. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) analyses demonstrated that Knowledge scores were affected by intensity of training. Other subscale scores indicated that rehabilitation counseling students had generally negative attitudes toward sex and disability and low levels of comfort with approaches from clients. Results demonstrate the importance of rehabilitation counselor educators incorporating the topic of sex and disability in training programs so that graduating students have the knowledge and comfort necessary to discus sex with their clients with disabilities.