The aims of this study were to investigate the lived experiences of people with complex communication needs in developing romantic and sexual relationships, and identify and explore barriers and facilitators they encountered in pursuing these relationships. For the study, nine participants were interviewed. All were at least 21-years-old, used…

In this grounded theory study I examined asexual college students' identity development within collegiate environments. Asexual students' experiences provided the emergent pathways for understanding their processes of identifying within the asexual spectrum. The resulting theory was constructed from and rooted in asexual students' stories and…

Objective: To examine mental health service experiences following sexual violence (SV) and intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization among college women with a disability. Participants: College women (n = 27, ages 19 to 24) with a disability who experienced at least one SV/IPV occurrence; interviewed July/August 2016. Methods: Qualitative…

General well-being is known to deteriorate sharply at the end of life. However, it is an open question how rates of terminal change differ across affective and evaluative facets of well-being and if individual difference correlates operate in facet-specific ways. We examined how discrete affective states (happy, angry, fearful, sad) and…

This study explores how visual narratives stemming from the experience of healthy embodiment in social virtual worlds, especially for individuals living with chronic disease or disability, both fosters relationships and more broadly impacts physical and emotional life experience and overall quality of life. It does so through the lens of social…

This study focuses on companionship, intimacy, and support of reciprocated friendships of students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), students with motor and/or sensory disabilities, and typically developing students with their classmates at the start of mainstream secondary school. The study included 1379 typically developing students, 65…

School social workers approach their direct practice from ecological systems and justice-oriented perspectives. As such, they may hold a critical role in providing needed sexual health and dating education and services to adolescents with disabilities. Thirteen high school social workers who work closely with adolescents with disabilities were…

Feminist scholars and activists writing about breast cancer care among women have highlighted the sexist and heterosexist assumptions often embedded in the medical management of breast cancer, and of mastectomy in particular. Despite these contributions, and some speculation that sexual minority women may be less interested in breast…

The present study explored whether students would be attracted to having an intimate relationship with a wheelchair user if participants were able to first see a head shot photo and later read a short biography of the person. Four hundred and eight undergraduate students were surveyed regarding their interest in potentially being friends, dating…

Compared attitudes toward persons with disabilities expressed by 157 kibbutz high school students and 133 urban students in Israel. Kibbutz youth expressed more positive attitudes than city youth on questions related to behavioral aspects of attitudes, but not on scales dealing with emotional experiences of persons expressing the attitudes.…