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

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Abstract

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.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Special Education and Rehabilitation, Hajduk Veljkova 3, 21000, Novi Sad, Serbia

    Daniela Tamas

  2. University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychology, Hajduk Veljkova 3, 21000, Novi Sad, Serbia

    Nina Brkic Jovanovic & Vojislava Bugarski Ignjatovic

  3. University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Psychology, Dr Zorana Đinđića 2, 21000, Novi Sad, Serbia

    Milana Rajic

  4. University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Medicine, Department of General Education Subjects, Hajduk Veljkova 3, 21000, Novi Sad, Serbia

    Bojana Peric Prkosovacki

Authors
  1. Daniela Tamas
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  2. Nina Brkic Jovanovic
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  3. Milana Rajic
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  4. Vojislava Bugarski Ignjatovic
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  5. Bojana Peric Prkosovacki
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Correspondence to Daniela Tamas.

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The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. All participants gave written consent noting that consent. Filling out the questionnaire and the results will have no impact on their further treatment as well as the treatment of their children when it came to the parents. Filling in the questionnaire was anonymous.

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Tamas, D., Brkic Jovanovic, N., Rajic, M. et al. Professionals, Parents and the General Public: Attitudes Towards the Sexuality of Persons with Intellectual Disability. Sex Disabil 37, 245–258 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11195-018-09555-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11195-018-09555-2

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