Disabled communities’ sexualities have been historically oppressed. Currently in the Unites States, public school curricula do not include inclusive sexual education and students with disabilities are often left out of classrooms that discuss any amount of personal health and sexual education. Research on the disabled population is filled with samples of non-disabled individuals imposing their opinions for a population that they do not belong to. The purpose of this study was to understand how emerging adults with disabilities learned about personal health and sexuality. Individuals with varied disabilities were intentionally included to add breadth the research field. Narrative interviews captured individuals’ lived experiences. The final sample consisted of eight individuals (75% female, 87% white, mean age of 21.5). After analyzing interviews using thematic narrative analysis, four story types were generated. Findings highlighted the lack of formal supports and access to adequate, relevant information about sexuality for disabled communities, as well as informal sources of information, like families and media. Findings also emphasized people’s agency in seeking out information on their own, as well as variability in people’s readiness and use of information about sexuality. Individuals’ disability symptoms and personal characteristics need to be considered when crafting universally applicable personal health and sexuality education. There are also opportunities for theoretical integration of disabilities and sexuality research. / M.S. / People with disabilities have historically been left out of policy and research related to sexuality. Governments and societies around the world have taken personal health choices and sexual decisions away from disabled communities. Furthermore, people with disabilities are not taught about bodily changes, romantic relationships, and safer sex practices. I gathered stories of lived experiences of personal health and sexual education from people with different disabilities in order to present variation of experience. Participants shared their journeys learning about their own personal health and sexuality during their lifetimes; equally as important, participants reflected on the inadequacy and failure of formal and informal resources, like schools and medical providers. To provide accurate health and sexuality information that disabled communities can use, families, schools, and healthcare providers need to understand the experiences of people with disabilities and ways that disabilities and sexuality intersect.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/116442 |
| Date | 09 1900 |
| Creators | Toman, Madelyn M. |
| Contributors | Human Development and Family Science, Wesche, Rose, Shivers, Carolyn, Sanner, Caroline |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ |
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