Abstract

For deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children living in an environment where their access to linguistic input and social interactions is compromised, learning emotions could be difficult, which may further affect social functioning. To understand the role of emotion in DHH children’s social life, this study investigated emotional functioning (i.e., emotion recognition, empathy, emotion expression), and its relation with social functioning (i.e., social competence and externalizing behaviors), in 55 DHH children and 74 children with typical hearing (aged 3–10 years; Mage = 6.04). Parental reports on children’s emotional and social functioning and factors related to DHH children’s hearing were collected. Results showed similar levels of emotional and social functioning in children with and without hearing loss. Use of auditory intervention and speech perception did not correlate with any measures in DHH children. In both groups, higher levels of empathy related to higher social competence and fewer externalizing behaviors; emotion recognition and positive emotion expression were unrelated to either aspect of social functioning. Higher levels of negative emotion expression related to lower social competence in both groups, but to more externalizing behaviors in DHH children only. DHH children in less linguistically accessible environments may not have adequate knowledge for appropriately expressing negative emotions socially.

Highlights

  • Recognizing others’ emotions allows people to collect the information required for subsequent decisions on responses to social situations

  • We divided the children into three age groups, and no differences between deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children and children with typical hearing (TH) were noted in each age group

  • This study examined emotional and social functioning in DHH children living in a predominantly hearing environment where their access to linguistic input is often compromised

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Summary

Introduction

Recognizing others’ emotions allows people to collect the information required for subsequent decisions on responses to social situations. The excessive expression of negative emotions is related to more externalizing behaviors in children with and without hearing loss alike, only in children with TH are more positive emotion expressions associated with higher levels of social competence (Wiefferink et al, 2012) These group differences in how emotion expression functions in social interactions reflects that DHH children may express emotions in a manner that is less suitable for achieving the goal of maintaining or strengthening their relationships with others (Rieffe & Meerum Terwogt, 2006; Wiefferink et al, 2012)

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