Author(s): Arogyaasha A Shali and Dr. Manjula Patil

Abstract:
Ninety siblings of children with mental retardation and their parents from urban and rural areas of selected districts of Northern Karnataka and special schools for mentally retarded located in Hubblli-Dharwad city comprised the population for the study. Sibling relationship Questionnaire (SRQ) (Furman Buhrmester, 1990) was used to assess the typical sibling’s perceptions of the relationship and behaviors towards their sibling with related child factors. Results reveled that among children with 13-18 year age group almost all had moderate level of sibling relationship. In case of 5-12 years age group majority of them were in moderate level of sibling relation and some were in low level of sibling relation. All first borns had moderate level of sibling relation and in case of second and later born, majority were in moderate level of sibling relation followed by low level of sibling relation. In case of children with mild and moderate level of retardation, had moderate and low level of sibling relationship. In case of profound mental retardation half of the children had low level of sibling relation. Level of retardation showed non-significant association in rural area. In case of urban area the level of retardation showed significant association with sibling relationship.