School psychologists may provide support services to siblings of children with special needs as part of a family-focused approach to intervention. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a 6-week support group for siblings. Pre-and posttest assessments of six children who participated in the support group and five who did not indicated that the support group had a significant effect on the participants' perceptions of social support. Parental interview data also indicated some improvements in the group participants' behavior toward their siblings. No significant differences were found between the groups on measures of behavior problems, self-concept, or knowledge about and attitudes toward children with handicaps. These results provide moderate support for the effectiveness of support services for siblings of children with special needs.
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McLinden et al. (1991) studied this question.
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