Singh, RituAshneet Kaur2018-09-112018-09-112015-07http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810072731Mental challenge is a bio-psychosocial problem. It is a condition of arrested or incomplete development of the mind, which is characterized by impairment of skills manifested during the developmental period, which contribute to the overall level of intelligence, i.e. cognitive, language, motor, and social abilities. To a parent, every child is special in his or her own way. But some children have special needs that challenge parents to find ways to best prepare these children for the future and to handle any problems that may surface. It often requires a reorientation and re-evaluation of family goals, responsibilities and relationships. The presence of a member with mental challenge irrevocably changes the family environment and affects family as a unit. Within the family system itself, subsystems such as; marital, parental, and sibling subsystems exist. Thus change in family environment affects the immediate relationships in family. It is a unique shared experience for families and can affect all aspects of family functioning The present study was undertaken to assess the family functioning of mentally challenged children, by exploring the sibling relationship, marital adjustment between couples as well as family environment of mentally challenged children. Mentally challenged children from the three RCI recognized institutes of Delhi (NIMH, Manovikas and CBS Memorial) were purposively selected. Total 150 mentally challenged children and their families were selected as respondents from these 3 special schools either through census method or lottery method. The self designed questionnaire was used to assess the socio-demographic (personal) & socio-economic (family) characteristics of children and their families. Sibling relationship was assessed by employing Sibling Relationship Questionnaire (SRQ) by Wyndol Furman and Duane Buhrmester, Marital adjustment between couples and Family environment of mentally challenged children were assessed using Dyadic Adjustment Scale by Spanier and Family Environment Scale by Rudolf H. Moos and Bernice S. Moos, respectively. The present study revealed sibling relationship, marital adjustment between couples and family environment of mentally challenged children was influenced by various socio-demographic (personal) variables and socio-economic (family) variables like gender, number of siblings, degree of mental challenge, parent’s education, father’s occupation, family type and family income. It was found that sibling relationship among mentally challenged children and mentally normal siblings varied across same sex dyads having highest warmth/closeness and relative status/power than opposite sex dyads. Families with severely mentally challenged children and two children including one mentally challenged child were found to have highest warmth/closeness and relative status/power and lowest conflict and rivalry. Higher the education of fathers and mothers, significantly more warmth/closeness and relative status/power and less conflict and rivalry was observed between their children. Middle income families and fathers who were in service were found to have highest warmth/closeness and relative status/power and lowest conflict and rivalry among mentally challenged and mentally normal siblings. Assessment of marital adjustment between parents revealed that parents who had mildly mentally challenged children, two children including one mentally challenged child and fathers who were involved in service were found to have higher consensus in decision making and affection; cohesion in activities and discussion and higher stability in their marital relations. Parents from middle income families and who had higher level of education (U.G./P.G.) showed higher marital adjustments on decision making, values, affection, stability, activities and discussion than those less educated. Assessment of family environment revealed that families with mildly challenged children had better cohesion, expressiveness, independence, achievement orientation, intellectual- cultural orientation, active-recreational orientation, organization and control and lesser conflict and moral – religious emphasis. Middle income families and families who had two children including one mentally challenged child and parents with higher level of education (U.G./P.G.) were observed to have healthier family environment on cohesion, expressiveness, independence, achievement-orientation, intellectual-cultural orientation, active recreational orientation, organization and control and low conflict whereas moral religious emphasis was the same in above three families. Mentally challenged child’s gender and their birth position didn’t influence the family subsystems except for warmth/closeness and relative status/power in sibling relationship.ennullThesis