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Sexuality in Adolescents with Intellectual Disabilities

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Abstract

Purpose This study aims to characterize adolescent development and knowledge, opinions, and attitudes toward sexuality in adolescents with intellectual disabilities. Methods Sixty students in occupational school with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities, aged between 15 and 20 years, formed this study’s sample from Turkey. The data taken from questionnaires was evaluated with the SPSS 13.0 package program. Results These results demonstrate that 51.7% of adolescents have not been educated professionally with regard to sexuality. In addition, 46.7% of them have never talked about sex with their parents. The level of knowledge among adolescents of both sexes is quite low. Most adolescents do not know the male and female differences in reproductive organs. While more than half of adolescents describe sex as kissing and intimate touching, about half of them think only married couples have sex. Conclusion Adolescents with intellectual disabilities in this study have very low levels of correct information about sex and the characteristics of the adolescent stages of development.

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Acknowledgments

We thank all of the participants who gave their informed consent for the study. This study received external funding from Akdeniz University Scientific Research Project Unit.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatric Nursing, Antalya School of Health, Akdeniz University, 07058, Antalya, Turkey

    Aysegul Isler

  2. Department of Pediatric Nursing, School of Nursing, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey

    Fatma Tas & Dilek Beytut

  3. Department of Pediatric Nursing, School of Nursing, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey

    Zeynep Conk

Authors
  1. Aysegul Isler
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  2. Fatma Tas
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  3. Dilek Beytut
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  4. Zeynep Conk
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Correspondence to Aysegul Isler.

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Isler, A., Tas, F., Beytut, D. et al. Sexuality in Adolescents with Intellectual Disabilities. Sex Disabil 27, 27–34 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11195-009-9107-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11195-009-9107-2

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