Attitudes Towards Sexuality and Sexual Orientation in People With Intellectual Disabilities: A Systematic Review.
There’s almost no research on supporting LGTBIQA+ clients with ID—start by auditing your own sex-ed materials for inclusivity.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Armas Junco et al. (2025) searched every database they could find for studies about attitudes toward sexuality and sexual orientation in people with intellectual disabilities.
They wanted to know how much research exists, what it says, and where the gaps are.
The team looked at papers from any year, any country, and any design.
What they found
The review found almost nothing. Only a handful of studies even mention LGTBIQA+ people with ID.
Most sex-ed research for this group still assumes everyone is straight.
The authors say we need to fight stigma and train staff better.
How this fits with other research
Older reviews saw the same blank space, but for abuse instead of orientation. Maddox et al. (2015) and Smit et al. (2019) both showed kids and adults with ID face higher sexual-abuse risk, yet hardly any prevention programs exist.
Wacker et al. (2009) counted just four assault-prevention programs for women with ID. Together these papers paint one picture: we study danger, not healthy identity.
Morris et al. (2021) looked inside behavior-analysis journals and also came up nearly empty. They found only 12 articles that even mention LGBTQ+ people, most from the old conversion-therapy days. Laura’s team widened the lens to every field and still found next to nothing—an apparent contradiction that actually confirms the gap is real across disciplines.
Why it matters
If you write sex-ed goals, check them now. Do they assume heterosexuality? Do they use gendered language like “boyfriend/girlfriend” without asking what the learner wants? Swap in neutral terms and ask open questions like “Who do you like?” Small edits signal safety and can open disclosure. Start there while the field catches up.
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Join Free →Replace one binary prompt in your lesson plan (e.g., “Find a boyfriend”) with a neutral choice (e.g., “Pick someone you like”) and note any new client responses.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Over time, sexuality has become a crucial aspect in people's lives, regardless of physical, intellectual or social conditions, ranging from sex and sexually transmitted diseases to gender identity and sexual orientation. The aim of this study was to carry out a review of the scientific literature on sexual orientation in people with intellectual disabilities from the Education and Health Sciences and to analyse how sex education is addressed in this group. To this end, a systematic review of research on sexual orientation in people with intellectual disabilities was carried out. The results obtained reveal that there is hardly any scientific corpus on this subject, so emphasis should be placed on the attitudes towards LGTBIQA+ people with intellectual disabilities, as well as on the training and understanding of the different sexual orientations they may have. It is essential to face the obstacles, stigmas and prejudices established in society to normalise the sexual needs of these people, improving, consequently, their quality of life.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2025 · doi:10.1111/jir.13219