General Health, Self-Esteem and Social Skills in Siblings of Normal and Educable Mentally Retarded Children

The aim of the present research was to compare General Health, Self-Esteem and Social Skills in Siblings of Educable mentally retarded (EMR) and normal students in yazd. In this a case-control studies. 80 girls and boys with EMR Siblings and 83 girls and boys with normal Siblings were chosen with the method of cluster random sampling. GHQ, RSS, MESSY questionnaires were given to Siblings. Data were analyzed by pearsonian correlation coefficient, kolmogroff-smirnoff and independent T test The result of this study indicated that girls with EMR Siblings in comparison to girls with normal Siblings, had significant difference in social skills, for example: fear of relationship with peers (P<0.001) and altruistic behaviors with other groups (P<0.024). There were no significant difference between other groups. The result of the present research indicated that: fear of relationship with peers and altruistic behaviors were more in girls with EMR Siblings than the other group. Influence of EMR children in family, having sufficient information about EMR child and adjustment of EMR children are important factors for girls & boys in relationship with their EMR Siblings and general health, social skills and self-esteem of them.