A Study On The Current Situation And Enhancement Of Sexual Self-protection Ability Of Vocational High School Students With Intellectual Disabilities

Despite their delayed intellectual development,adolescents with intellectual disability have the same developmental processes and needs as normal people,and during this period they also show a desire for sexual knowledge which may confuse normal people either.Adolescents with intellectual disability have greater individual differences.Due to the low level of intellectual development and cognition,adolescents with intellectual disability lack the ability to judge their behaviors and to express their sexuality rationally,which lead to their deviated sexual cognition and some behaviors that not conform social moral norms or even violate the law.The lag between sexual physiological maturity and sexual psychological development directly leads to an increasing risk of sexual problems among adolescents with intellectual disabilities compared with normal adolescents.It also threats their quality of life,as they are exposed to higher risks of sexual assault,infection of sexually transmitted diseases and problematic sexual behavior.Therefore,it is imperative to carry out sexual self-protection education for intellectual disabled students.A comprehensive understanding of the current situation of the sexual self-protection ability of adolescent students with intellectual disabilities is the basis for effective sex education.Therefore,this study uses questionnaires to explore the current situation of the sexual self-protection ability of intelligent disabled students in vocational high school,and research the effectiveness of group counseling intervention in improving the sexual self-protection ability of intellectual disabled students by using group counseling intervention.Study one consisted of two sessions.As there is no questionnaire on sexual self-protection skills is suitable for students with intellectual disabilities in China,the first step was to revise the Detection of Sexual Abuse Risk Screening Scale(DSARss)for people with intellectual disabilities developed by Dolores etc.with permission.In step 1 of the revision,the DSARss was translated into Chinese and the translated scale was corrected.In step 2,in order to minimize the errors due to translation and increase the confidential level of research,the researcher and the back-translator reach an agreement in terms of the differences of back-translated scale and the original version and some fine adjustments are made to entries where there were ambiguities or difficulties in understanding.In step 3,it can be sure that the meaning of the back-translated questionnaire was basically the same as the original scale by comparing back-translated version of the English scale with the original volume.In step 4,expert was invited to review the first draft of the DSARss scale Chinese-revision.The revised version of the scale,DSARss-CR,consists of 19 judgment questions on the following dimensions: physical contact and privacy rules,recognizing aggression in intimate relationships,recognising the risk of sexual aggression in public or private settings,and sexual safety self-protection skills.The scale has a Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.83,which has good reliability,as well as good construct and empirical validity.The DSARss-CR questionnaire was used to investigate the current status of sexual self-protection ability of 29(16-22 years old,10 females and 19 males)VET students with intellectual disabilities.The results of the study showed that the sexual self-protection skills of the VET students with intellectual disabilities were at an intermediate level,with mean scores and standard deviations for each dimension,physical contact and privacy rules(1.517±1.379,score range 0-4),recognising aggression in intimate relationships(2.483±1.703,score range 0-4),recognising the risk of sexual aggression in public or private(0.069±0.258,score range 0-4),and sexual safety self-protection skills(5.828±1.713,score range 0-8).The sexual self-protection ability of the students with cerebral palsy is higher than that of the students with other kind of intellectual disabilities and those with autism;age,grade,and gender were not significant predictors of sexual self-protection scores for students with intellectual disability.In Study two,a pre and post-test experimental group and control group experimental design was used to implement a group counselling intervention for 22 vocational students with intellectual disabilities to enhance their sexual self-protection ability.The group counselling program was firstly developed based on the current situation of the sexual self-protection ability of the vocational high school students with intellectual disabilities,which included: "Loving each other as a family","Facing the onset of youth","Being the master of your own body ","Harmonious Relationships","Understanding Sexual Assault","Preventing Sexual Assault","Preventing Sexual Assault ","I can protect myself" and "Tomorrow will be better".After comparing the statistics in the sexual self-protection ability of intellectual disabled students before and after the group counselling intervention,the results showed that the mean score of the experimental group increased from 9.95 to15.91,and the mean score of each item increased from 0.52 to 0.83.It also showed a significant difference by conducting the paired t-test.There was no statistically significant difference between the total score and the scores of each factor in the control group before and after the intervention.The results of the qualitative analysis of the student feedback further verify the validity of the group programme.Conclusion:(1)The revised Sexual Self-Protection Ability Assessment Scale for Intellectual Disability-Chinese Revised(DSARss-CR)shows a good reliability and validity.(2)Vocational high school students with intellectual disabilities have an overall moderate level of sexual self-protection ability and the highest level of risk in identifying sexual assault in public or private settings.(3)The group counselling intervention can significantly improve the sexual self-protection ability of vocational high school students with intellectual disabilities.The revised DSARss-CR(Sexual Self-Protective Ability Assessment Scale for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities-Chinese Revised Version)provides a valid and user-friendly assessment tool for assessing the sexual self-protection ability of persons with intellectual disabilities in China.In addition,this study helps to enrich and improve the theoretical research on sex education for students with intellectual disabilities and also provides reference for the development of comprehensive sex education teaching.In the future,the sample size can be expanded by sampling nationwide to further validate the findings.Parents and teachers can also be included in the study to provide relevant data from multiple perspectives and track the effects of the intervention,which will be able to fill the gaps in this study.