| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 諮商心理與復健諮商研究所 === 105 === Attitudes Towards the Sexual Issues for Adults with Intellectual Disability: Employment Specialists and Parents
Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the attitudes of employment specialists and parents towards the sexual Issues for adults with intellectual disability (ID), and to compare the results from the subjects of demographic variables. The research tool was a survey to a sample of 186 adults (103employment specialists and 83parents) from the Kaohsiung City. Approximately 58% of the sample completed the questionnaires on attitudes towards sexual issues for adults with ID. The questionnaire used in this study was adapted from the questionnaire developed by Cuskelly & Bryde (2004) that focused on attitudes to sexual expression of persons with ID. The questionnaire of the study used an attitude scale including eight themes of sexuality (sexual feelings, sex education, masturbation, personal relationships, sexual intercourse, sterilization, marriage, and parenthood), and utilized a four-point Likert scale. The data collected were checked for completion and then were analyzed by the descriptive statistics,Repeated measures one-way ANOVA, independent samples t-test, and one-way ANOVA with SPSS.
According to the results, there is a significant difference between employment specialists and parents on overall attitudes toward the sexual issues of adults with ID.The results show employment specialists’ attitudes are more positive than parents’, though there is no significant difference between the two groups in two themes respectively: sexual feelings and sex education. Besides, to both genders of the people with ID, employment specialists’ scores show no significant difference in the eight themes of sexuality, which means they are not influenced by the genders of their clients.
By analyzing the demographic variables and the attitude scores, the male employment specialists reveal more positive than the female specialists concerning the three themes:sterilization, marriage, parenthood, and overall scores. Moreover, the specialists of agencies which have not conducted any sex-related activities and courses are more positive on sex education, than the specialists of the agencies which conduct sex-related activities and courses from time to time.
As for the themes of masturbation and sterilization, the specialists who have experience of dealing with sexual issues for the clients with ID are more positive than those who have no experience.Besides, there is a significant difference between the male and the female parents on the issue of sterilization, while the male parents are more positive.
According to the findings of this study,it has been suggested that agencies should provide sex-related courses, and employment specialists and parents of children with ID should take those courses to increase related knowledge and to decrease the difference among their attitudes.
At last, the limit of this study and the suggestions for future research are suggested.
Key words: employment specialists, parents of children with intellectual disability, adults with intellectual disability, attitudes towards the sexual issues.
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