Implicit and Explicit Attitudes of Professional Caregivers toward Sexuality of Disabled Users

Introduction and Aim. Although many Western countries show a growing interest in the inclusion of the issue of sexuality in the training on disability for professional caregivers, many of the practitioners neglect the issue or devalue themselves as incompetent or revealing the prevalence of strong prejudice. Between 2009 and 2010 authors were granted by the Italian Umbria Region a research-intervention project on sexuality and disability in order to reduce the social and cultural barriers that hinder the sex lives of disabled people. Method. One hundred subjects were involved in the project and experimental data were collected from 80 subjects. Participants answered questionnaires to detect both explicit attitudes and stereotypes, and three versions of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to detect implicit attitudes on sexuality and disability. Results. The IAT’s findings confirm the hypothesis of a discrepancy between implicit and explicit attitudes, showing a greater practitioners’ implicit prejudice to the expression of sexuality of disabled people. Conclusions. The research confirms what has been found in previous studies—the need for greater attention in the training of professional caregivers toward the sexuality of people with disabilities.