Browsing by Author "Czapla, Klaudia"

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    Differences in Sexual Behavior of Teenagers and Young Adults with Cerebral Palsy: The Role of Sexual Needs and Sexual Esteem
    ("Sexuality and Disability", 2018, 4(36), s. 33-46, 2018-12-30) Czapla, Klaudia; Otrębski, Wojciech
    Sexuality is an inherent attribute of all human beings regardless of their race,religion and the level of physical fitness. The way it is perceived and manifested is determinedby a number of biopsychosocial factors. In some people, including persons with cerebralpalsy, the factors and their influence are rooted in the psychophysical condition of the humanbody. The aim of this study was to answer the question about how the levels of sexual esteemand sexual needs differentiate the sexual behaviors of young people with cerebral palsy. Thestudy being presented was conducted with 62 young persons with cerebral palsy (half womenand half men), who were selected using purposive sampling. They were aged 15–25 yearsand were individuals without cognitive difficulties. The research tool used was the CerebralPalsy Individual’s Sexual Behavior Questionnaire developed by the authors. The findings ofthe study showed that half of the participants engaged in various sexual behaviors from thelist that was presented to them. The frequencies of these engagements depended on the levelsof their sexual esteem and sexual needs. Persons characterized by high levels of sexualesteem and sexual needs (much fewer than those with the low levels of both characteristics)engaged in sexual behaviors significantly more frequently. The most frequent among themwas direct engagement in sexual activity (petting and sexual intercourse;pB.001) and thenexposure to sexually explicit magazines or films (pB.05).
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    Sexual self-esteem and sexual needs of young adults with cerebral palsy
    (2014-12-30) Czapla, Klaudia; Otrębski, Wojciech
    Sexuality is an important part of human existence, irre-spective of race, religion or level of physical fitness. It can, however, be treated and exhibited by individuals in very different ways. The place of sexuality in a person’s life, and in the way it is materialised, is determined by a number of biopsychosocial factors. For some, the presence of these factors and their influence is not a matter of choice. They may arise as a consequence of the psychophysical condi-tion of their organism. People with motor disabilities un-doubtedly belong to this group. The study was carried out in Poland on a group of 61 peo-ple with roughly equal proportions of men and women. Subject selection was non-random; every subject was di-agnosed with cerebral palsy (CP) and was aged between 15 and 25. All of the subjects had normal levels of intelli-gence. Two methods were used in the study: Sexual Self-es-teem Scale and Sexual Needs Scale. The results in terms of sexual self-esteem and sexual needs allowed two different subgroups of subjects to be distin-guished (H – with high scores; L – with low scores). The analysis of significance levels of the differences in terms of sexual self-esteem and sexual needs between subgroups H and L confirmed the clear distinction between each of the subgroups’ clinical pictures (p < .001) in 20 out of 21 of the analysed aspects. Falling in love was the only matter that did not differentiate the subgroups.conclusionsThere is a clear polarization of the results. Only 1/3 of the respondents had high sexual self-esteem and sexual needs. The remaining 2/3 reported having a rather low sexual self-esteem and low levels of needs with regards to their own sexuality. It needs to be stressed that CP-affected youth, similarly to their peers, may need support in discov-ering their sexuality and satisfying their sexual needs (2/3 of the respondents). The specifics of the range of support should take into account the aspects highlighted by the lit-erature as associated with the causes of disability and con-texts of psychosocial functioning of individuals with CP.