What do a Group of Young Chilean with Down Syndrome Know about Puberty, Relationships and Reproduction?

Abstract

Introduction: living sexuality and affectivity fully is fundamental in every human being, however, people with Down syndrome (DS) have few instances of sexual education and few spaces for socialization to experience it. Objectives: describe the knowledge that young people with DS have on basic issues of puberty, relationships and reproduction. Methodology: qualitative, descriptive, exploratory study in two focus groups of young people with DS, between 13 and 18 years old, separated by gender. The information was recorded, coded according to categories. Results: regarding the word “sexuality”, the women declared that they had not heard it and the men referred to “sex”, “couple relationships”, “love” and “family”. For “pubertal changes”, both groups reported the most visible changes, but nothing regarding reproduction. Only one participant understood the concept of “sexual relationship”. Women considered the “beginning of human life” as a spontaneous generation event and the men came up with a fanciful theory. The family was the main source of information. Discussion: participants showed deficient and infantilized handling of information. Research and development of Sex Education programs are urgent to dignify the sexuality and affectivity of people with DS, from a rights’ perspective.