The evaluation os sexuality of people with intellectual disabilities: construction and description of a semi-structured interview

Abstract

Although people with intellectual disabilities experience the same need for intimacy as the rest, a series of social barriers impede the expression of their sexuality, encouraging them to be perceived as asexual beings. For this reason, for a long time the voices of people with disabilities have not been heard, which means that there is currently a shortage of assessment tools to explore the different aspects of sexuality of this group, taking into account its limitations in literacy and understanding. The objective of this study is to prepare a reliable and valid semi-structured interview that takes into account the characteristics of people with intellectual disabilities and enables the evaluation of their sexual behaviour. This instrument, which has been administered to 360 people with mild or moderate intellectual disabilities between 19 and 55 years old, is made up of 34 items (26 with a closed response and 8 with an open response) grouped into 4 dimensions: sexual behaviour (19 items), preventive behaviours (3 items), information received on sexuality (6 items) and experiences of sexual abuse (6 items). In the process of constructing-validating this interview, a group of experts was involved who analysed its format and content in different phases. The final version has an acceptable reliability ( ✔ =.73). This study has shown not only the complexity of preparing a semi-structured interview to explore different aspects of the sexuality of people with intellectual disabilities, but also the importance of the professionals in charge of its application having the necessary training.

Keywords

• sexualidad
• entrevista semiestructurada
• discapacidad intelectual
• construcción
• descripción