En tom arena : gymnasiesärskole- och habiliteringspersonalens perspektiv på sex- och samlevnadsundervisning

Sammanfattning: The overall aim is to investigate the possibilities and barriers to the implementation of sexuality education in special schools and habili-tation services in Sweden. Young people with intellectual disabilities have less knowledge about their body, sexuality and relationships compared to others. The study aims to examine attitudes to and ex-periences of sex education among staff in special schools and habili-ation services. It focuses on their view on 1) the objective of sex and relationship education, 2) sexuality, gender norms and heteronor-mativity, and 3) the staff´s own abilities to work with sexuality edu-cation. The empirical data has been collected using qualitative focus groups and analyzed on the basis of the theory of social representa-tions. The results demonstrate among other things that sexuality in young people with intellectual disabilities is mainly viewed from a risk perspective. They are attributed a responsibility to deal with sexual risks while lacking the capacity to take on this responsibility. Their sexuality is made to a different type, where the so-called nor-mal sexuality is defined as that in individuals without intellectual disabilities. Girls and lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer people's sexu-ality is problematized more often than that of boys and heterosexual adolescents. Staff lacks training and support to work on the topic. The study shows the importance of education and support interven-tions aimed at special schools and habilitation services regarding sexuality education, which will be beneficial young people with in-tellectual disabilities.