Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Gadke, Daniel L.

Committee Member

Stratton, Kasee K.

Committee Member

McCleon, Tawny

Committee Member

Wei, Tianlan

Date of Degree

8-7-2020

Original embargo terms

Visible to MSU only for 1 Year

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Educational Psychology

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

College

College of Education

Department

Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Foundations

Abstract

The current study aimed to examine attitudes of sexuality of individuals with CHARGE syndrome by exploring potential barriers that may exist due to differences in the attitudes towards sexuality in parents of individuals with CHARGE syndrome and those attitudes of adults with CHARGE syndrome. Participants included 24 adults with CHARGE syndrome and 31 parents of individuals with CHARGE syndrome. The Attitudes of Sexuality-Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities (ASQ-ID) was completed by all participants and was adapted to address this specific population for the current study. Using a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), four themes of sexuality from the ASQ-ID (i.e., sexual rights, parenting, non-reproductive sexual behavior, and self-control) were examined by comparing differences of mean scores across parents of individuals with CHARGE syndrome and adults with CHARGE syndrome. Further, standard linear regressions were used to determine if age was a predictor of attitudes of sexuality within this population. Results indicated that while there was not a statistically significant difference between parents’ overall scores and adults with CHARGE syndrome’s overall score, statistically significant differences were found in two of the subscales. Specifically, adults with CHARGE syndrome were found to have more positive views in the area of parenting, as compared to parents of individuals with CHARGE syndrome. Likewise, parents of individuals with CHARGE syndrome were found to have more positive views in the area of self-control, opposed to adults with CHARGE syndrome. Further, age was not found to be a predictor of attitudes of sexuality within this population. The results and implications of the findings are discussed, as well as limitations and future directions.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/18431

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