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‘Just When You Think You Got It All Sorted …’: Parental Dilemmas in Relation to the Developing Sexuality of Young Profoundly Disabled People
Author(s) -
Swain John,
Thirlaway Carole
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
british journal of learning disabilities
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.633
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1468-3156
pISSN - 1354-4187
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-3156.1996.tb00203.x
Subject(s) - human sexuality , feeling , psychology , qualitative research , developmental psychology , relation (database) , identity (music) , gender studies , social psychology , sociology , social science , physics , database , computer science , acoustics
Sexuality is a neglected topic in the literature focusing on young profoundly disabled people. For parents and formal carers who work with parents and young people themselves, however, sexual development and identity pose fraught and complex challenges in understanding and addressing young people's needs. This paper is based on qualitative research which explored parents' experiences, feelings and understandings and the responses of formal carers to parents' perspectives. The parents faced contradictory pressures to deny and not to deny sexuality. Formal carers drew on beliefs about ‘good parenting’ in reactions to the position of parents. Both groups confronted real dilemmas with young people who are incapable, and may never be capable, of informed consent or self‐determination in sexual relationships.