Hard Copy has reported on studies exploring the lack of comprehensive sex education available to disabled individuals. Those studies find that not only does that lack of education infantilize developmentally disabled individuals it but also puts them at risk. In a new study published in the journal Sexuality and Disability, researchers developed a training program featuring 80 videos depicting both appropriate and inappropriate romantic scenarios. Each participant viewed selected videos and practiced responding to the situations using a 10-step task analysis. The study found that the video modeling intervention significantly improved participants’ decision-making skills across all four relationship domains: in-person verbal, in-person physical, online verbal, and online physical interactions. Before the intervention, participants completed an average of just 20% of the steps correctly, but accuracy jumped to 76% once the video training began. Couldn’t this approach also be useful in sex education for the young?
Helping Young Adults with Disabilities Navigate Romance
