Differences in social-sexual knowledge & attitudes between institutional & community-based mild grade mentally handicapped persons : an exploratory study

Chi-square tests revealed that there was significant relationship between the Subjects' social-sexual knowledge and their attitude in the area of Dating. Vov the other areas no such relationship existed. Correlation.-'"! tests between Subjects' actual amount of social-sexual knowledge in a soecifin area and their self-rating of their knowledge in that area showed that tJlffjffl vers significant relationships with regard to these two variables. i\inor.g the various groups in coir:parison, the Community-baaed Females had been found to be most reliable relatively in assessing their own knowledge in most of the areas ur.der stud v. Qualitative analyses of the resi;orifies revealed some special features of the Subjects1.' social-sexual knowlcdft and attitudes. llor.a subtle differences between male ar.c female Subjects with regard to their attitudes toward Dating, i'iarriage and Parenthood had been identified. Overall, myths and ;;tohk misconceptions field by the Subjects were not as widespread as once commonly expected. however, the feelings of inadequacy and inferiority were quite prevalent. Finally, the findings from this study were discussed in the light of the development of institutions and other services for the mentally handicapped persons in Hong Kong. Suggestions for future researches in this field and their implications for sex education and training for the mentally handicapped persons were made. L