Mothers’ perceptions of sex education for adolescents with intellectual disabilities : A Systematic Literature Review

Adolescents with Intellectual disabilities (ID) have the same sexual and physiological developments as typically developing adolescents, including the same sexual feeling and sexual needs. However, because of cognitive limitations and lack of self-care abilities, they have a higher risk of sexual assault than others. As all other youth they need sex education to prevent sexual exploitation and to learn how to protect themselves. Since parents often are the primary caregivers of adolescents with ID, and they are also the primary educators of adolescents’ sexual education, parents play a crucial role in the development of adolescents’ sexual behavior. It is vital to understand what parents’ perceptions on sex education are. In the past, there have been few studies on the perceptions of parents on sexual education for adolescents with ID. Therefore, this paper aims to explore their perceptions through a systematic literature review. A series of electronic databases were searched, and three studies were identified for the review based on inclusion criteria. Content analysis was used to synthesize the results of the included studies. Findings show that mothers want to provide appropriate sex education for their children, including how to protect themselves and education on inappropriate sexual behavior, and family planning is not included in sex education, and believed that school could be the best choice regarding on providing sex education. The study also found that mothers have barriers to providing sexual education, such as lack resources and supports, poor knowledge about the sexuality, lack of confidence and sexuality is a very private matter. But there are also facilitators, the important role and responsibility of the mothers in providing sex education in the family, and the open and honest way in which the mother communicates with her children about sexual issues. These findings will help teachers or practitioners to consider the situation of parents when developing sex education programmes for adolescents with ID