Does parents’ level of education moderates quality of sibling relationship between mentally challenged children and their normal siblings? A cross-sectional study

The present study investigated the influence of parent's level of education on sibling relationship between mentally challenged children and their normal siblings. For the present study, 150 families with mentally challenged children were randomly selected from 3 different rehabilitation centers of Delhi across four different levels of parent education viz. illiterate; educated up to primary; educated up to high school/intermediate; educated up to Under Graduate/Post Graduate. The respondents for the present study comprised of one (any) of the parents (150) and one (any) of the normal sibling (150) of mentally challenged children making a total sample of 300 respondents. Sibling Relationship Scale was administered to respondents to arrive at meaningful inferences about sibling relationship between mentally challenged children and their normal siblings. Findings of the present study revealed that higher the level of education of parents, father and mother both, significantly better was the relationship between mentally challenged children and their normal siblings. Higher education of parents meant higher warmth/closeness, nurturance and dominance by sibling, and lower conflict and rivalry between mentally challenged children and their normal siblings.