The school-aged siblings of children with disabilities.

A retrospective cohort study was performed of the school-aged siblings of children with severe learning difficulties. Index siblings demonstrated restricted contact with friends, behaviour difficulties, increased anxiety and increased acceptance towards disability compared with comparison siblings. Boys older than the disabled child demonstrated increased acceptance, whereas older girls demonstrated high rates of behaviour difficulty. Younger siblings demonstrated higher levels of anxiety, and those near in age demonstrated restricted contact with friends and behaviour difficulties. Those with no other normally developing siblings had restricted contact with friends. The 'burden of care' experienced by the mother had a significant positive correlation with the adverse effect on siblings.