Love and Emotional Well-being in People with Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

Love has been a recurrent topic throughout history, and especially, literature. Moreover, there is generalized agreement about its relevance for health emotional well-being, and quality of life. This study was carried out with a sample of 376 persons with ID. The goals of the work were to analyze a theoretical model of love in people with intellectual disabilities by means of the methodology of structural equations, and to analyze their perception of love and of amorous relations with regard to other aspects such as amorous satisfaction, perceived satisfaction, absence of family interference, self-determination, and emotional well-being. The results revealed that (a) the construct under study has three factors: Commitment, stability, and idealization, Passion and physiological excitement, and Intimacy and romanticism; (b) the perception of love in this collective is, in general, idealized and affected by the context; and (c) self-determination and the lack of family interference are relevant variables to explain both love and emotional well-being.