Attitudes Towards Affectivity and Sexuality of People with Intellectual Disability

The acceptance of sexuality and its manifestations has changed in recent decades to being considered a normal feature of the
identity of each individual. However, the person with intellectual disability have not benefited from this change in attitude.
Their sexuality remains shrouded in myths and prejudices. The study population consisted of 454 students from the University
of Beira Interior, from the Medicine, Psychology and Architecture majors. The data was collected using a questionnaire specifically
drafted for this research. Most surveyed students consider sexuality an important part of life for every human being. From
the responses to the questionnaire, psychology students were those with a more positive attitude towards sexuality and affectivity
of the individual with intellectual disability, but the variability of the distribution of student responses from the three
majors did not differ significantly. A positive attitude is characteristic of those who have acquired sufficient knowledge,
females and of those who have frequent contact with individuals with intellectual disability.