Sexuality is one of the basic human needs and rights, which has been in the course of the history many times taken away from the persons with intellectual disabilities. Persons with intellectual disabilities are more often exposed to sexual abuse and also have difficulties with expressing sexuality in a socially acceptable way, as well as less knowledge in the field of sexual health and protection. Therefore, sex education presents one of the most effective preventive factors (Bratković, 2011; Heighway, Kidd Webster, 2008; Petersilia, 2000; O'Callaghan in Murphy, 2007; Servais, 2006).
The main purpose of the master´s thesis was to establish a level of the acquired knowledge, developed skills and perspectives of the adult persons with intellectual disabilities toward individual topics in the field of sexuality prior and after the implementation of the education. Further, on the basis of sex education, we also wanted to achieve a progress in knowledge and skills in the field of sexuality.
In the theoretical part, we were interested in what ways and capabilities are available to ensure the right for sexuality to individuals with intellectual disabilities throughout education and within the living communities. Shortly, we summarize general laws of nature of the sexual development, and further we focus on the characteristics of the sexual development of persons with intellectual disabilities. The greatest focus is on the presentation of the current objectives and programmes of the sex education for the adult population of persons with intellectual disabilities, as well as the current researches and novelties at international and national level.
In the empirical part, we have presented an example of implementation of the sex education for the adult population of persons with intellectual disabilities in one of the living communities. Due to the smaller number of the participants, a descriptive statistics has been used which was presented in graphical and tabular form. The majority is presented by interpretation of the results prior and after the education. The results were obtained based on the Sexual Attitudes and Knowledge (S.A.K.) Assessment (Heighway, Kidd Webster, 2008). The interview was translated and adapted for the purpose of this thesis. The interview has checked knowledge, skills, and perspectives in the field of understanding of relationships, social interactions, knowledge on sexuality, and assertiveness.
The results revealed a progress in the field of understanding of relationships and knowledge on sexuality, while the results in the field of social interactions and assertiveness were slightly lower. In total, in all fields a slight progress can be noticed in knowledge and skills. In the final part, common findings and recommendations for further work in the field of sex education of adult persons with intellectual disabilities are presented.
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