Mapping French People’s Views Regarding Sexual Assistance to People with Physical Disabilities
Résumé
The study mapped French lay people’s positions regarding sexual assistance to people with physical disability. A sample of 238 adults living in the south of France, aged 18–67 years, was presented with a set of 30 vignettes that depicted a situation in which a minor who, as a result of an accident was quadriplegic, expressed his/her sexual needs to a nurse who arranged an encounter with an assistant at the hospital. The scenarios in the vignettes were created by orthogonally combining the levels of three factors: Patient’ gender × Assistant’s identity (same gender nurse, opposite gender nurse, opposite gender nurse who has been trained in sexual assistance, prostitute, or former boyfriend/girlfriend) × Parent’s attitude (agree with the procedure, agree with the procedure and financially compensate the assistant, disagree with the procedure). Through cluster analysis, five qualitatively different positions were found: (a) never very acceptable (21% of the sample), (b) depends on the assistant’s identity (13%), (c) non-remunerated assistance (14%), (d) parents’ agreement (8%), and (e) always quite acceptable (28%). Seventeen percent of the participants were undetermined. Religious involvement had a strong effect. The quite always acceptable position was above found among male atheists, and the never acceptable position was above all found among participants who were either regular attendees to religious celebrations or members of the less educated segment of society. Regular attendees with tertiary education tended to be undetermined.