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Evaluation of Effectiveness of Parent Health Education About the Sexual Developments of Adolescents with Intellectual Disabilities

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Abstract

The study highlights rehabilitation implications of organizing parents’ educational programs to increase knowledge and enhance self-efficacy in addressing the needs of sexual development of adolescents with intellectual disability. The procedure included: individual interviews to create the content education program, provide education, and evaluate the effectiveness of the education. Over a 4 week period, four education modules were conducted for each parent. Then 2 weeks were utilized to evaluate the efficiency before and after education. Both fathers and mothers were mostly in the 40–49 years age group. Children with intellectual disabilities were mostly between the ages of 10 and 14, male, and receiving special education for 7–12 years. General self-efficacy and information scores of both mothers and fathers were found to be significantly increased after the education (p < 0.001; p < 0.001 respectively). Parents did not know how to deal with the problems effectively about the sexual development of their adolescent children with intellectual disabilities. Health professionals can help increase parents’ awareness, knowledge and skills by providing educational and rehabilitation supports on issues such as sexual development of children with disabilities during the process of adolescence.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the two headmasters of the Special Education Schools for providing their school facilities for our study and all the research participants who shared experiences about the sexual developments of adolescent children with disabilities.

Conflict of interest

The authors have disclosed that they have no significant relationships with, or financial interest in any commercial companies pertaining to this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Nursing, Gulhane Military Medical Academy, 06010, Etlık, Ankara, Turkey

    Gulsah Kok

  2. School of Nursing, Koc University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Aygul Akyuz

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  1. Gulsah Kok
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  2. Aygul Akyuz
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Correspondence to Gulsah Kok.

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Kok, G., Akyuz, A. Evaluation of Effectiveness of Parent Health Education About the Sexual Developments of Adolescents with Intellectual Disabilities. Sex Disabil 33, 157–174 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11195-015-9400-1

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