Methodology of sex education programs for people with intellectual disability: a systematic review

Abstract

Methodology of sex education programs for people with intellectual disability: a systematic review. The methodology of the affective-sexual education programs of people with intellectual functional diversity (PDFI) to be effective in promoting a healthy, positive and satisfactory experience of their sexuality must adapt to the characteristics and needs of the collective. The available literature on the methodology used in affective-sexual education programs for PDFI and, in general, in the experimental design of the studies is scarce. The objective of this literature review is to know the design, content and learning methodology of the programs that have been implemented between 2010 and 2021. The bibliographic search was carried out with the terms “sex education”, “intellectual disability” and “program or intervention or treatment”, in the following databases: PsycoInfo, PsycArticles, ERIC, Web of Science and Google Scholar. Of the 1123 articles identified, the review articles, single case and those whose sample were not the people with intellectual disabilities themselves (e.g., parents, professionals, etc.) were excluded. Finally, only 11 met the criteria to describe the design of educational programs for PDFI. The results show that most of the interventions were implemented in heterogeneous samples, both in terms of IQ (36.6% combined people with mild and moderate disabilities) and gender (63.63% included women and men) and age (63.63% included young people and adults). Regarding the methodology used, 72.72% used game dynamics, 63.63% guided discussion and 54.54% role playing. Regarding the contents worked, the most frequent are: body parts (100%), social skills (85.7%), interpersonal relationships (85.7%); sexual assertiveness (85.7%) and prevention of sexual abuse (85.7%). We could conclude that, regardless of the approach taken, most of the studies that describe these programs lack an exhaustive description of the design, content and methodology, which hinders their replicability.