O relacionamento fraterno na presença da deficiência

This research was developed during four years, in different regions of the country. Its purpose was to better understand the possible influences that handicapped siblings have on the development of non- handicapped siblings. Participated in the study 80 siblings, with ages ranging between 14 and 26 years. There were 20 siblings of physical handicapped (PH), 20 siblings of auditory handicapped (AH), 20 of mental handicapped (MH), and 20 of non handicapped, in number and ages equivalent.The participants answered a questionnaire containing “characteristics of handicapped person”, “characteristics of respondent sibling”, “characteristics of family”, a questionnaire with eleven closed questions and one open, but for the control group there was on less question. The phenomena studied in this research in some situations present themselves differently for each group of respondent sibling (ex: greater concern of the parents with the MH sibling, calling attention more for siblings of PH and MH, more responsibility in the family, taking care of the handicapped sibling, fear of having handicapped children, and the perception of (in) dependency of the handicapped sibling) and in others present themselves in similar manner (ex: more concern of the parents with the brother with PH, nature of the relationship, to feel or not ashamed of the sibling, talking about the sibling development). In conclusion, some phenomena, so far socially perceived as causing differences in sibling relations and attributed to de presence of a handicap are not, since between siblings of non handicapped these same phenomena present themselves in a similar way. Differently from the control group, siblings of handicapped need correct information, as well as therapeutic support to elaborate feelings of fear, anger, shame that they may have due to their condition. It is important to stress, also, the need that these siblings have to be themselves without the stigma of sibling of handicapped.