Predictors of parental attitudes towards sexual health education for persons with special needs

ABSTRACT

International guidelines on sexual health education suggest that parents should be the primary educators in their children’s sexuality education, considering that sexuality education is a lifelong process that begins in early childhood and continues into adulthood. The study aimed to investigate the relationships among parental self-efficacy, parental knowledge about sexuality, attitudes towards sexuality of people with disabilities, and parental stress. A total of 58 parents of children with various disabilities, including Autism Spectrum Disorders, ADHD, and physical disabilities, participated in the study. The findings indicate that knowledge about sexuality is an important predictor of the parental attitudes towards sexuality of people with disabilities.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexual health education
• disability
• parental attitudes

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Author contributions

All authors have contributed equally to the conception and design of the study, statistical analysis, writing, manuscript revision, and approved the submitted version.

Additional information

Funding

The authors did not receive support from any organisation for the submitted work.