The Effect of Sex Education Program on the Attitudes of the Families of Adults with Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

It is extremely important to provide sex education to individuals with intellectual disabilities because they do not know where, when, and in which situations their sexual behavior is appropriate or not, and because they cannot control their sexuality. This study aimed to examine the effect of the Sex Education Program for Families of Adults with Intellectual Disabilities (ZACEP) on the knowledge level of families of adults with intellectual disabilities and their attitudes towards their children’s sexual development and sex education. The research adopted a single group pre-test and post-test model, one of the experimental research models. The sample consisted of nine mothers. The effectiveness data of the study were collected through the Parental Sex Education Attitude Scale. SPSS packet program was used for data analysis. The pretest and posttest items were first analyzed with descriptive statistics, then frequency, percentage, and maximum-minimum values were calculated. The t-test analysis for dependent samples is required to compare the pretest and posttest scores of a single group. However, due to the number of participants (N=9), the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test, which is the nonparametric equivalent of t-test, was used. Research findings showed that the ZACEP did not affect the mothers' attitudes towards the sexuality of adults with intellectual disabilities. Besides, the ZACEP did not affect parents' attitudes towards sexuality at item level.