Psychosexual Development of Individuals with Disabilities

1
Psychosexual Development of Individuals with
Disabilities

• Charles Dukes and Pamela Lamar-Dukes
• Florida Atlantic University

2
Critical Questions

• How do our sexual feelings and behaviors become
  part of our personalities and social
  interactions?
• What are the important ways in which children,
  adolescents, and adults become acquainted with
  their sexual needs and make decisions about
  acting on them?

3
More Critical Questions

• How do we understand the contrast between normal
  and abnormal expressions of sexuality?
• How do we communicate our own understanding of
  sexuality to adolescents and children?

4
Psychosocial Development

• All of us gradually develop our own
  individualized way of thinking and feeling about
  sexuality.
• Psychosocial development entails interactions of
  biological factors (e.g., physiology) and
  learning from social environment (e.g., parental
  attitudes).

5
The Developing Self

• Operant Conditioning. When behavior is
  reinforced-either through pleasure, reward, or
  removal of some unpleasant stimulus-it is likely
  to be repeated. Note, there is an emphasis on
  positive and negative consequences of sexual
  behavior.
• Social learning. Learning is influenced by
  cumulative observation of and identification with
  other people.

6
The Developing Self

• Developmental theory. A focus on the influence of
  social forces on child development.

7
The Developing Self

• Ericksons psychosocial development. During
  adolescence and young adulthood each individual
  has the task of achieving a clear understanding
  of herself or himself as a sexual person and of
  achieving a sense of intimacy with other human
  beings.

8
The Developing Self

• Piaget set forth stages for cognitive development
  and suggested that at the time of adolescence,
  one is able to formulate ideas without a
  dependence on immediately available concrete
  representation.

9
Sexuality in Infancy and Childhood

• Foundations for sensuality, intimacy, and
  relationship to other people are established
  during infancy.
• Bonding between infants and their parents is
  important.
• Interactions between parents and infants
  contribute to the early formation of
  relationships.

10
Sexuality in Infancy and Childhood

• Children begin to gain a sense of their own
  bodies and of the capacities for pleasure that
  their bodies have.
• Masturbation and exhibiting genitals to other
  children are common forms of sex play.
• How parents and others respond to sex play in
  children begins to set the stage for later
  sex-related values.

11
Sexuality in Adolescence

• While the boundaries of adolescence have been
  poorly defined, some encompass individuals
  ranging in age from 12 to 24.
• The primary source of sex information for the
  majority of young people are friends of the same
  sex and independent reading.
• For many adolescents, this is the period of
  development of a self-concept (e.g., attitudes
  about ones place in relation to others).

12
Sexual Development in Adolescence

• Substage 1 Preadolescence. Typically during this
  period there is low mental and physical
  investment in sex. This stage occurs before the
  age of 10.
• Gender identity is usually established during
  this time.

13
Sexual Development in Adolescence

• Substage 2 Early Adolescence. The beginning of
  physical maturation, usually between the ages of
  10 and 13 years. This stage is associated with
  extreme concern and curiosity about their own
  bodies.
• Early adolescents may be concrete thinkers who
  lack the ability to think abstractly about the
  future.

14
Sexual Development in Adolescence

• Substage 3 Middle Adolescence (ages 14 to 17) is
  marked by the attainment of full maturation.
  Sexual behavior becomes more exploratory and
  potentially exploitive during this time.
• Adults often underestimate the level of sexual
  activity of middle teens. Communication between
  teens and mothers is associated with safer sexual
  behavior and less risk taking.

15
Sexual Development in Adolescence

• Substage 4 Late Adolescence. This stage begins
  at age 17 and ends at different times, depending
  in part on the level of dependence that remains
  between the child and the parents.
• Ericksons intimacy stage is now a primary
  developmental task.

16
Discriminating Between Normal and Abnormal

• Assumptions cannot be made about the nature,
  meaning, motives, or knowledge of children based
  solely on the observed or reported behavior.
• Sexual behaviors may be perceived as problematic
  for children for a variety of reasons.

17
Discriminating Between Normal and Abnormal

• Parents and professionals can consider behavior
  in context by posing a question, Is the behavior
  a problemand if soWhat kind of problem is it?
• The reasons why behavior might be a problem are
  then described in terms of being a problem for
  the child who is doing it, being a problem for
  others, or being a problem because it is abusive
  or illegal.

18
Promoting Healthy Psychosexual Development

• Individuals with developmental disabilities learn
  self-protection skills-
• Recognize a potentially dangerous situation.
• Respond to the abuse situation by verbally
  refusing and/or escaping the situation.
• Report the abuse situation.
• Exercise caution in new situations and with new
  people.

19
Promoting Healthy Psychosexual Development

• Individuals with developmental disabilities need
  to develop decision-making skills that allow them
  to (a) perceive and understand the potential for
  harm in an abusive situation, (b) weigh the risks
  and benefits of alternate courses of action, and
  (c) choose a suitable course of action in
  self-defense.

20
Making Good Communication Happen

• Demonstrate an attitude of warmth. Caring, and
  respect
• Avoid making snap judgments and allness
  statements
• Listen carefully and really hear
• Empathize and understand that feelings need to be
  felt

21
Making Good Communication Happen

• Be genuine
• Make sense and ask for clarification
• Do not silence scare you
• Beware of the I do not want to hurt you cop-out
• Use self-talk effectively

22
A Focus on Sexual Abuse

• Sexual abuse is defined and conceptualized in
  several different ways.
• The prevalence of sexual abuse deserves the
  attention of parents and support staff.
• Individuals with developmental disabilities need
  to develop specific skills to reduce risk of
  sexual abuse.
• Effective teaching can help individuals with
  developmental disabilities learn sexual abuse
  prevention skills.

23
Sexual Abuse and Contact

• Sexual abuse is defined as attempted or
  successful coerced intercourse (Lumley et al.,
  1998).
• Stromsness (1993) investigated different types of
  abuse.
• Direct sexual contact, defined as fondling,
  forced masturbation, or oral, anal, or vaginal
  intercourse, was involved in 71 of the cases.
• Noncontact abuse, including forced viewing of
  pornography, forced posing for nude photographs,
  being watched while undressing, or exposure to an
  offenders genitals, was involved in the
  remaining 29 of the cases.

24
Individuals may be victimized in more than one way

• Khemka and Hickson (2000) investigated a wide
  range of abuse against individuals with
  disabilities.
• Sexual abuse is defined as any contact between
  two individuals that is not consenting by either
  one of the individuals and/or representing
  exploitation of a relationship pf authority.
• Physical abuse is defined as contact which may
  include, but is not limited to obvious physical
  actions as hitting, slapping, pinching, kicking,
  unauthorized or unnecessary use of personnel
  intervention, or otherwise mishandling of a
  person.
• Psychological or verbal abuse is defined as the
  use of verbal or nonverbal expression, or other
  actions, that subjects a person(s) to ridicule,
  humiliation, scorn, contempt or dehumanization,
  or is otherwise denigrating or socially
  stigmatizing.

25
Who is likely to perpetrate sexual abuse?

• In 44 of cases, the perpetrators were people who
  were known to the victim as a result of the
  victim's disability.
• 36.7 of the abuse occurs in settings that were
  encountered because the individual had a
  disability.
• In short, individuals with disabilities are
  exposed to a number of caregivers and setting,
  that may increase their risk of being sexually
  abused.
• Lumley Miltenberger, 1997

26
Resources on the internet about sexual abuse and
disability

• Family Village- http//www.familyvillage.wisc.edu/
  general/abuse.html
• Crime Prevention Division- http//www.lawlink.nsw.
  gov.au/cpd.nsf/pages.blyth
• Advocate web- http//www.advocateweb.org/hope.abus
  eofpersonswithdisabilities.asp
• Arizona State University- http//www.public.asu.ed
  u/ajain8/se/sexedu.html
• Council for Exceptional Children ERIC Clearing
  house- http//ericec.org/faq/sexed.html
• Disability online- http//www.disability.vic.gov.a
  u/dsonline/dssite/nsf?open