Sexual Developmental Characteristics of Intellectually Disabled Adolescents in Türkiye: A Cross-Sectional Analysis

Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the sexual development characteristics of adolescents with intellectual disability in terms of several variables. The data were collected with the Personal Information Form and the Sexual Development Characteristics Scale of Children with Adolescent Mental Disabilities. Method: Independent samples tests, one-way ANOVA tests, and Bonferroni post hoc analyses were conducted to compare the descriptive characteristics of the adolescents and parents with their scale scores. Multiple linear regression analysis was employed to examine the relationships between the dependent and independent variables. Significant differences were identified between certain subdimensions of the scale and the variables. Findings: The sexual arousal subdimension of the scale accounts for 12% of the variance in the dependent variable, the knowledge about physical development subdimension accounts for 10% of the variance in the dependent variable, the sexual satisfaction subdimension accounts for 6% of the variance in the dependent variable, and the sexual self-care subdimension accounts for 11% of the variance in the dependent variable. This difference was explained by the independent variables (R2 adjusted= .12, .10, .06, .11, respectively). Conclusion: In this study, it was found that the sexual development characteristics of adolescents with intellectual disability were affected by the educational status of the mother, the place of residence of the family, the help of the spouse in childcare, the gender of the child, the verbal communication status of the child, the degree of inadequacy of the child, and the ability to meet the personal needs of the child.