Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice among Parents About Sex Education of Their Children with Intellectual Disability

Abstract

Background: Awareness among parents having children with intellectual disabilities has been a major concern for the last many decades. Despite several policies and plans of the government somehow, the desired awareness among the parents has not yet been created. Objective: The objective of this study was conducted to find out the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) toward sex education among parents having children with intellectual disability. Materials and Methods: One hundred and thirty parents of children with intellectual disability (irrespective of severity) using a random sampling technique were selected. To assess the KAP of parents scale named Awareness on Sexual Education for Parents of Intellectually Challenged Children developed by Lakshmi and Navya (2014) and published by National Psychological Corporation, Agra, India, was used. Results: The result reveals no significant difference in the KAP, respectively, among parents w.r.t. their gender. Significant difference in the knowledge (t = 3.58) and attitude (t = 2.82) was noticed w.r.t. education. In the KAP, respectively, a significant difference (t = 2.95; t = 2.22 and t = 3.06) was found among parents toward sex education w.r.t. their income. The overall awareness (KAP) w.r.t. education (t = 3.62) and income (t = 3.82) reveals significant difference but not w.r.t. gender. The analysis reveals a significant positive correlation of knowledge with attitude (r = 0.453), knowledge with practice (r = 0.233), and attitude with practice (r = 0.252). Conclusion: Based on the findings, the study concludes that gender has no role to play in imparting sex education to children with intellectual disability. However, education and income may contribute significantly to the awareness among parents of children with intellectual disability.