Views on Sex Using the Nominal Group Technique to Explore Sexuality and Physical Intimacy in Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

Individuals with an intellectual disability (ID) have sexual feelings, are sexually active and have ideas about sexuality. There is limited information available about the ideas and experiences regarding sexual expression, interests and knowledge of sexual rights in this population. This study aims to identify the ideas, expressions, barriers to sexuality, experienced by people with IDs, using the Nominal Group Technique (NGT). The NGT was used to explore the views of people with mild ID on sexual needs and issues. NGT is a structured and specific form of focus group research. It is a 'single-question' technique that combines quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection for relatively small groups. NGT involves four steps: silent generation of ideas, round robin recording of ideas, clarification of ideas, and ranking of ideas. It was an inclusive research project: people with an ID were involved in the design, planning, performance, and analysis of the study. In total 39 people with mild IDs were able to explore their experiences and ideas on sexuality. They were able to answer questions like: What are their needs? What are their problems? They were capable of expressing their views, needs and barriers on sexuality and sexual rights. The most important items were the relationship between two people (47%), sex and sex related subjects as sex education (23%), and feeling safe and comfortable (10%). People with mild IDs are capable of expressing their views on sexuality and sexual rights. The participants stated that they need support in achieving these rights. The nominal group technique appears to be an appropriate methodology on sensitive issues as sexuality and sexual rights.

Sexuality of People with Intellectual Disabilities: A Proposal to use the Positive Sexuality Model

“…19 articles were included in the analysis. Four of them show the results of quantitative research (Arias et al, 2009;Gil-Llario et al, 2018;Morales et al, 2015;Siebelink et al, 2006), one of them refers to quantitative and qualitative research (Stoffelen et al, 2019), and the remaining articles relate to qualitative research. In the last group of the aforementioned articles methods allowing for the analysis of respondents' experiences, such as semi-structured interviews were often used.…”

“…Hope associated with experiencing love in the future studies highlighted the possible difficulties resulting from intellectual disability in the field of tools used (Arias et al, 2009;Siebelink et al, 2006). A significant problem was related to the assessment of the paper in which the nominal group technique was used (Stoffelen et al, 2019). Only the basic criteria important for the evaluation of qualitative and quantitative research were applied here.…”

“…4) Love: understanding, desire for love and experiencing love; the importance of love for the quality of life; love as the source of empowerment (Arias et al, 2009;Bates et al, 2016;Ćwirynkało & Żyta, 2019;Mattila et al, 2017;Morales et al, 2015). 5) Pleasure: desire for pleasure, physical expression as an important element of relationships (Bates et al, 2016;Lafferty et al, 2013;Rushbrooke et al, 2014;Siebelink et al, 2006;Stoffelen et al, 2019;Sullivan et al, 2013;Turner & Crane, 2016;Yau et al, 2009). 6) Sexual satisfaction: diversified sexual activities, a positive relationship with emotional well-being (Arias et al, 2009;Gil-Llario et al, 2018).…”

“…9) Dreams, plans and thoughts: being with a loved one, marriage and parenthood, marriage as the basis of a happy future (Healy et al, 2009;Kelly et al, 2009;Lafferty et al, 2013;Mattila et al, 2017;Rushbrooke et al, 2014). 10) Contextual factors: negative and positive role of the environment (family and specialists); structural and organizational limitations resulting from the specific organization of life, transport and material barriers, low level of sexual education; coping with limitations (Arias et al, 2009;Bane et al, 2012;Ćwirynkało & Żyta, 2019;Healy et al, 2009;Kelly et al, 2009;Siebelink et al, 2006;Stoffelen et al, 2019).…”

“…Considering high cognitive and application value of the positive sexuality model, it should be noted that this perspective has not been thoroughly explored when it comes to people with intellectual disability (ID). It is worth mentioning, however, that the method of analyzing sexuality in this group of people has changed shifting towards the verification of the group representatives' experiences (numerous qualitative studies) at the same time enabling the people with ID to express their views and preferences (Stoffelen et al, 2019) and to increase their participation in projects (numerous studies with self-advocates and other participatory studies) (McCarthy, 1999;Stoffelen et al, 2019). However, as valuable empirically as these works may be, they do not seem to sufficiently focus on the positive phenomena.…”