Sexual knowledge, experience and feelings among people with disability

The current study was designed to evaluate the sexual knowledge, experience , feelings and needs of people with intellectual disability or physical dis ability, and compare them to people from the general population. Sixty peop le with mild intellectual disability (28 males, 32 females, mean age = 27.6 2 years), 60 people with physical disability (33 males, 27 females, mean ag e = 28.65 years) and 100 people from the general population (40 males, 60 f emales, mean age=30.10 years) participated in the study. Each respondent co mpleted the Sexual Knowledge, Experience and Needs Scale (SexKen). This sca le assesses levels of knowledge, experience, feelings and needs in 12 diffe rent areas of sexuality. The results demonstrated that people with intellec tual disability experienced lower levels of sexual knowledge and experience , more negative attitudes to sex and stronger sexual needs than people with physical disability in all areas of sexuality. People with physical disabi lity demonstrated these same trends when they were compared to people from the general population. Art interpretation of these results as they relate to the sexuality of people with intellectual or physical disability is prov ided.