Deaf and hard-of-hearing children and adolescents’ mental health, Quality of Life and communication

Abstract

Mental health problems and lower Quality of Life (QoL) are more common in deaf and hard-of-hearing – (D)HH – children than in typically hearing (TH) children. Communication has been repeatedly linked to both mental health and QoL. The aims of this study were to compare mental health and QoL between signing deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH), hard-of-hearing (HH) and TH children and to study associations between mental health/QoL and severity of hearing loss and communication. 106 children and adolescents (mean age 11;8; SD = 3.42), 59 of them DHH and 47 HH, and their parents reported child mental health and QoL outcomes. Parents also provided information about their children's communication, hearing loss and education while their children's cognitive ability was assessed. Although (D)HH and their parents rated their mental health similar to their TH peers, about twice as many (D)HH children rated themselves in the clinical range. However, (D)HH children rated their QoL as similar to their TH peers, while their parents rated it significantly lower. Associations between communicative competence, parent-reported mental health and QoL were found, whereas severity of hearing loss based on parent-report had no significant association with either mental health or QoL. These results are in line with other studies and emphasise the need to follow up on (D)HH children's mental health, QoL and communication.