Impact of sex education programs on sexual knowledge and feelings of men with a mild intellectual disability

This study is a qualitative study designed to examine effectiveness of two sex education programs for increasing sexual knowledge and positive feeling s of people with intellectual disability. Sexual knowledge, experiences and feelings of six adolescent and adult men were assessed using the Sexuality Knowledge, Experience, Feelings and Needs Scale for People with Intellectu al Disability (Sex Ken-ID), pier to, and at the completion of sex education . The sex education programs were relatively comprehensive, involving 6-10 sessions of sex education in a community health setting. The results of the study demonstrated that there were minimal increases in the sexual knowled ge of participants at the end of the programs. These changes were limited m ainly to improvements in knowledge of friendship, contraception, pregnancy, sexual interaction and social skills. Low levels of knowledge about mastur bation and menstruation remained essentially unchanged. Participants had pa rticular difficulty expressing their feelings about sexuality. After sex ed ucation, more positive feelings were expressed in relation to female friend ships and hugging someone of the opposite sex. However, the negative feelin gs of some participants towards girlfriends, masturbation, oral-genital sex and sexual intercourse remained. Following sex education, more negative fe elings developed about marriage having children and being present during ch ildbirth. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to t he future design of sex education programs and the need for parental educat ion regarding the sexuality of their children.