Perceptions and Problems of other Siblings in a Family Having Mentally Retarded Children

Children as well as adults need a warm affectionate relationship with small circles of intimate associates. In infancy, the relationship and bonding between parent and child are vital to future, normal physical psychological and social development. (Brisbane, 1965; Cruick shank,1963). In siblings a competitive struggle that often develops between siblings for the affection of their parents. In some instances families of mentally retarded child have give up every semblance of normal family organization and life style life literally resolves around the retarded child, and the formal individual personal lives of the other family members are denied and social life is sacrificed. With this, view an attempt was made to study the relations and problems of other siblings in a family having mentally retarded children. A sample of 161 siblings of age group 1420yrs randomly selected from 200 families having a child with mental retardation. The data was obtained from RASS and MORE CBR projects in chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh. The sample consists of both male (N-77) and female(N=84) siblings. A designed sibling relations and problem inventory(SR&PI) was designed to assess the relations and the problems that are challenged by other siblings in a family having mentally retarded child. This inventory (SR&PI) comprised of two parts. Part one dealt with relations of siblings and part two about siblings problems. The findings of the study was often attributed to the fact that an enormous degree off responsibility for the care of the child with disability was typically assigned to older sisters. This responsibility for care giving was, in turn, believed to deprived girls of the opportunity to engage in age appropriate activities .on other hand female siblings are forced to have highest relations with their MR sibling than those of male sibling in a family.