Exploring sexual health in people with mild intellectual disabilities: A concept mapping study on the perspectives of relatives and support staff

ABSTRACT

Background:

Sexual health includes physical, emotional, mental, and social wellbeing related to sexuality. Given people with mild intellectual disabilities’ reliance on relatives and support staff, it is important to explore the latter’s understanding of sexual health.

Method:

Relatives (n = 7) and support staff (n = 15) of people with mild intellectual disabilities participated in a concept mapping procedure that included brainstorming, sorting and ranking activities. An expert group interpreted the results.

Results:

Relatives and support staff identified aspects of sexual health of people with mild intellectual disabilities, including sexual preferences, sexual behaviour and support and education. While relatives prioritised relationships, support staff emphasised sexual identity.

Conclusions:

The study highlights the necessity of adopting a comprehensive approach to sexual health for people with mild intellectual disabilities. This approach should consider developmental perspectives, incorporating support, education and a positive attitude towards their sexual health. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Mild intellectual disabilities
• sexual health
• support staff
• relatives
• concept mapping

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in Dataverse at https://doi.org/10.34894/AS4NLG

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Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Zorgondersteuningsfonds [grant number PROM-2], a not-for-profit funding agency.