COPING MECHANISMS OF FILIPINO SIBLINGS OF EXCEPTIONAL PUPILS

This research aimed to determine the implication of the coping skills in terms of understanding, awareness, and acceptance of siblings of pupils in an inclusive classroom and be the basis for an intervention plan. The study was descriptive type. It was conducted in a public school in Quezon City in the school year 2014-2015. The thirty-three (33) siblings and thirty-three (33) pupils were the respondents and subjects respectively. The data used frequency, percent, mean, analysis of variance, and chi-square test. Analysis of the results led to the following conclusions: In general, the sibling-respondents have 3 siblings, in which predominantly male and 19.5 years old. The pupil-subjects consist of males who slightly outnumbered the females, or generally 14 years old, either the youngest or the middle child, with predominantly intellectual disabilities and autism spectrum disorder, with moderate level of exceptionality, and mostly in the kindergarten level. Understanding, Awareness, and Acceptance are the coping skills used by the sibling-respondents when dealing with their disabled siblings. Coping mechanisms are perceived to be exhibited often. This shows that sibling-respondents often understand, are aware, and accept their exceptional siblings. This means that the level of the siblings’ coping skills of the disabled pupils are nearly the same regardless of whether the disability is ADHD, ASD, Intellectual Disability, Physical Impairments, or Visual Impairments. They may have high or low coping mechanisms towards their sibling with special needs regardless of their gender, age, number of siblings, economic status, and religion. Results of this study imply that there must be cooperation among teachers, parents, and siblings of differently-able pupils to achieve the common goal of helping them to improve their behavior and cognitive aspect as well for which an intervention program was planned