Psychological research for developing supporting programs for siblings of children with handicaps

本研究旨在探讨发展残障儿童兄弟姐妹社会心理技能的有效方案。本研究主要采用了两种方法。一种是研究残障儿童兄弟姐妹和母亲心理特征的投影法，另一种是在项目中支持兄弟姐妹的实用方法。研究结果如下。1)由于兄弟姐妹必须有一些角色来照顾他们的残疾兄弟/姐妹，这通常属于母亲，因此他们必须在方案中得到照顾，他们可以成为“主角”。3)母亲对兄弟姐妹的情感支持是解决兄弟姐妹情感冲突的重要关爱。4)与正常发育儿童相比，兄弟姐妹在照顾有残疾的兄弟姐妹方面感受到了更强的角色责任感。5)残疾儿童的母亲意识到在日常生活中需要特别照顾兄弟姐妹。根据这些发现，讨论了将残疾儿童的兄弟姐妹作为一个主要的人来照顾的计划的重要性，这些人可以作为个人行事，而不需要承担基于家庭的角色责任。还讨论了照顾残疾儿童的母亲的重要性，这些残疾儿童总是为兄弟姐妹和残疾儿童感到焦虑。

The purpose of this research was to investigate effective programs for developing social-psychological skills of siblings of children with handicaps. In this research, mainly two kind of methods were utilized. One was projective method for studying psychological features of siblings and mothers of children with handicaps, the other was practical method in which siblings were supported in the programs. The findings was as below. 1) As sibling had to have some roles to take care of their brothers/sisters with handicaps which was regularly belonging to mothers, they must be taken care of in the programs they can be a "leading role". 2)Siblings possibly felt a confliction unresolved after the interaction with their brothers/sisters with handicaps.3) Mothers' emotional supports for siblings can be important care for resolving siblings emotional confliction. 4)Siblings were feeling stronger role-responsibilities to take care of brothers/sisters with handicaps compared to typically developed children. 5)Mothers of children with handicaps are conscious of needs to take special care of siblings in daily life. From these findings, importance of programs in which siblings of children with handicaps can be taken care of as a main person who can act as individual without home-based role responsibilities was discussed. The importance of caring mothers of children with handicaps who are always feeling anxiety for both sibling and children with handicaps was discusses as well.