Living with My Intellectually Disabled Sibling: A Qualitative Research

Çaynak S., Keser İ., Demiralay Ş., Duran Ş. B.

Hacettepe Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, vol.42, no.2, pp.1-12, 2025 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)

Abstract

This study aims to identify the life experiences of individuals who have intellectually disabled siblings and their views on this situation. 10 individuals participated in the study. The design of this study is qualitative research; we used a semi-structured interview form for data collection. Ethical approval of the study and individual consent of the participants was obtained. We performed a thematic analysis in analysing the data. We conducted the study under three categories: thinking, emotion/behaviour and coping; and eight main themes: having a disabled sibling, thoughts about the attitude of people around, feelings about having a disabled sibling, the way of showing love to the disabled sibling, experiencing difficulties in the family, experiencing difficulties in making explanations to the people around, practices they perform in the face of difficulties. Although having an intellectually disabled sibling is challenging for the nondisabled sibling, it is also enabling them to gain maturity and developmental features. Keywords: Intellectual disability, sibling, qualitative study