Evaluation of effectiveness of parent health education about the sexual developments of adolescents with intellectual disabilities

Abstract

The study highlights rehabilitation implications of organizing parents' educational programs to increase knowledge and enhance self-efficacy in addressing the needs of sexual development of adolescents with intellectual disability. The procedure included: individual interviews to create the content education program, provide education, and evaluate the effectiveness of the education. Over a 4 week period, four education modules were conducted for each parent. Then 2 weeks were utilized to evaluate the efficiency before and after education. Both fathers and mothers were mostly in the 40-49 years age group. Children with intellectual disabilities were mostly between the ages of 10 and 14, male, and receiving special education for 7-12 years. General self-efficacy and information scores of both mothers and fathers were found to be significantly increased after the education (p < 0.001; p < 0.001 respectively). Parents did not know how to deal with the problems effectively about the sexual development of their adolescent children with intellectual disabilities. Health professionals can help increase parents' awareness, knowledge and skills by providing educational and rehabilitation supports on issues such as sexual development of children with disabilities during the process of adolescence.