Maternal reports of behavior of siblings of children with Down syndrome.

Mothers of children, ages 6 to 13 years, representing two target groups were interviewed: siblings of children with Down syndrome and a comparison group of siblings of children without Down syndrome. Mothers were interviewed regarding their expectations of typical child behavior, their perceptions of conduct problems of their child, and the extent to which that child shared household responsibilities. There were no significant differences between the groups regarding expectations of "typical" children, but the mothers of girls who had a sibling with Down syndrome reported significantly more conduct problems than did either mothers of children without Down syndrome or mothers of boys with a sibling who had Down syndrome. Groups did not differ with regard to the number of household tasks, but reports of conduct problems in the girls who had a sibling with Down syndrome were inversely related to the number of tasks undertaken.