Abstract
This study examined how healthy people perceive their mentally retarded siblings and what they see to be their future relationship with them. Healthy siblings of mentally retarded persons were given a questionnaire regarding their relationships with their parents and mentally retarded siblings during childhood and how they introduced their mentally retarded siblings to their fiancees. In most cases, they had good relationships with their mentally retarded siblings during childhood. Most of them also intended to take care of their mentally retarded siblings after their parents passed away. However, some seemed to have ambivalent feelings about their mentally retarded siblings in connection with marriage and starting their own families. Half of the married healthy siblings had informed their partners about their mentally retarded siblings before they married. Some of the married healthy siblings were worried that they might have a mentally retarded child.
