Professionals, Parents and the General Public: Attitudes Towards the Sexuality of Persons with Intellectual Disability

Abstract

© 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature. Prejudices still surround the issue of sexuality of persons with intellectual disability (ID), both in families and in the professional community. To assess attitudes of parents, professionals and the general population towards the sexuality of persons with ID, so that appropriate sexual education could be introduced and implemented with persons with ID. We used Attitudes to Sexuality Questionnaire—Individuals with an Intellectual Disability, with a questionnaire on general demographic data. Attitudes of professionals on the sexuality of persons with ID mainly show conservative viewpoints; parents feel unprepared to educate their children on the subject of sexuality. Attitudes on sexuality of persons with ID are important to consider since they can provide valuable clues as to the direction in which educational programs should be moving in order to have an effect on achieving a better quality of life for persons with ID.