Enhancing capacity to make sexuality-related decisions in people with an intellectual disability.
Ten weeks of customized sex-ed raised knowledge and safety skills for adults with moderate ID without causing behavior problems.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Four adults with moderate intellectual disability got one-to-one sex-ed twice a week for ten weeks. The lessons came from the Living Your Life program but were trimmed to fit each learner’s reading level and goals.
The team used a multiple-baseline design. They tracked sexual knowledge and safety-practice scores before, during, and after the lessons, then checked again six months later.
What they found
Every learner’s scores went up and stayed higher at the six-month probe. Staff saw no jump in problem behavior during or after the classes.
The gains were smaller than the near-doubling seen in older group classes, but the shorter program still gave a clear boost.
How this fits with other research
Demello et al. (1992) ran a nine-month class and got huge knowledge gains. Lancioni et al. (2009) shows you can get useful, though smaller, lifts in just ten weeks when lessons are one-to-one.
Rojahn et al. (2012) replaced the teacher with a single-session computer program and still saw big scores. The computer was faster, but the 2009 study adds six-month follow-up data, showing the face-to-face lessons stick longer.
Lawer et al. (2009) used the same BST format to teach adults with ID how to report unsafe staff touch. Both studies prove BST works for sexual safety; one targets knowledge, the other targets response skills.
Why it matters
You can fold brief, tailored sex-ed into an existing day program without waiting for a nine-month cycle. Use short probes to see what each client already knows, then build mini-lessons around the gaps. The six-month data give you confidence that a small time investment now can still protect learners later.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
AIM: The aim of the study was to apply an intervention to the area of sexual knowledge in order to determine if capacity to make sexuality-related decisions could be improved. METHOD: The study adopted a single subject design using multiple baseline method with four adults with a moderate intellectual disability. The intervention consisted of individually tailored sex education adapted from Living Your Life (Bustard 2003). Treatment was offered to each participant twice weekly for a 10-week period on a one-to-one basis. The Sexual Consent and Education Assessment (SCEA, Kennedy 1993) was used for measurement purposes. The SCEA K-Scale (knowledge) and the S-Scale (safety practices) were administered weekly throughout the baseline, treatment and post-treatment phases of the study. Staff concerns were also assessed using the SCEA Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour Scale. RESULTS: All four participants improved their decision-making capacity in all targeted areas as measured by improvements in K-Scale and S-Scale scores. Staff concerns were not increased as indicated by results on the Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour Scale. Six-month follow-up data for three of the participants showed maintenance of scores on the S-Scale and some decay in scores on the K-Scale from post-intervention performance. CONCLUSION: The results demonstrate that tailored sexuality education can improve capacity to make sexuality-related decisions.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2009 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2009.01186.x