SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT, EDUCATION AND SEXUAL ABUSE OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES IN THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA

Abstract

The information presented in this part are nominal data, which after collecting, were numbered, grouped and tabled, and after that processed with standard statistical program SPSS 11 for WindowsXP, applying c2 test, which at the 2 x 2 tables was applied together with Fisher exact test R x C tables of contingency, in order to obtain more precise results and determine existence of the possible concession.

Abstract

At social community level there are still myths and stereotypes, which refer to sexuality of the persons with disabilities. The most common wrong assumptions are those stating that persons with disabilities are asexual - long life children and the opposite ideas which state that persons with disabilities are sexually impulsive. The truth is that sexuality is an integral part of each life starting in the childhood and stretching throughout the whole life.

The main goal of this master thesis, presented on 190 sheets, was to elaborate the characteristics of sexual development of persons with disabilities, more exactly of persons with mental retardation, vision impairments, auditive impairments and persons with physical impairments. Furthermore, to determine the degree and manner of acquired sex education and to make comparison in terms of prevalence and reasons for sexual abuse of persons with different types and degrees of disabilities, as well as to stress the possibilities for prevention.

The sample of the research was consisted of 317 examinees separated in 6 groups and one control group. The first group included 98 examinees with mental retardation, out of which 36 at the age between 10 and 15 years from the Special Primary Schools "Idnina" and "Dr. Zlatan Sremac", 29 examinees with mild mental retardation older than 15 years from the State Secondary School for Rehabilitation and Education "St. Naum Ohridski", 33 examinees with moderate mental retardation no older than 10 years of age, from Institution for Rehabilitation of the Children and Youth - Topansko Pole. The second group included 25 persons with visual impairments from the Institution for Rehabilitation of Children and Youth with Visual Impairments "Dimitar Vlahov", out of which 8 were at the age between 10 and 15 years and 17 examinees were older than 15 years. The third group included 19 examinees with auditive impairments at the age between 10 and 15 years from the Institution for Rehabilitation of Children and Youth with Auditive Impairments "Kocho Racin" - Bitola and 16 examinees with auditive impairments older than 15 years from the Center for Education and Rehabilitation "Partenija Zografski" - Skopje. In the forth group there were 25 persons with physical impairment, from the Institution for Prevention and Rehabilitation of the Persons with Physical Impairments "Banja Bansko" - Strumica, 21 examinees no older than 12 years of age and 4 examinees from the Center for Cerebral Palsy at the age between 10 and 15 years. 72 special educators and rehabilitators and professional staff from the institutions, primary and secondary special schools were included in the fifth group, and in the sixth group were included 30 parents of the persons with disabilities. In the last group 32 pupils from the Primary School "Petar Zdravkovski - Penko" at the age between 10 and 15 years were included. In the third part of the master thesis the analysis of results and discussion were presented. The information presented in this part are nominal data, which after collecting, were numbered, grouped and tabled, and after that processed with standard statistical program SPSS 11 for WindowsXP, applying c2 test, which at the 2 x 2 tables was applied together with Fisher exact test R x C tables of contingency, in order to obtain more precise results and determine existence of the possible concession. In order to determinate correlation between two or more variables related to some of the questions, coefficient of contingency (C) was applied and for the questions where the examinees gave more than one answer, the test for evaluation of the equality of the percentage (z) was applied in order to estimate if the percentage of some answers was equal or different for two or more groups of examinees. Statistical important difference was at the level of p<0,05.

As important we can point out the folowing conclusions: the persons with disabilities follow the same developmental cycle as other population with possible small concessions in relation with the type and degree of disability; all persons with disabilities are sexual creatures; they acquire information for sexual development from media or friends, and the knowledge about unwanted pregnancy and contracepcion is at lowest level. We determined that the most common method for presenting the contents of sexual development and education is the classical method with certain application of illustrations, while there is insufficient sexual education within the family. It was concluded that there was significant number of persons with disabilities which had been forced to watch different pornografic matherials or do different sexual actions. The most affected population in relation to this problem are persons with mental retardation, and the lowest education get persons with hearing impairments at the age between 10 and 15 years. One of the conclusions was also the need of professional education about sex education, prevention and early detection of the sexual abuse of this category of people for the special educators and rehabilitators, the other special staff and parents of the persons with disabilities.