Abstract
We examined differences between Deaf, Cochlear Implanted (CI) and hearing male adolescents in terms of their social confidence levels. 54 Deaf, CI user and hearing male adolescents completed a version of the Deaf Acculturation Scale (DAS) that was specifically designed for adolescents by Maxwell-McCaw and the Jackson Personality Inventory. There was a significant main effect of hearing and deaf environment and hearing environment and general social confidence, but no significant interaction between environment and preferred mode of communication or its effect on social confidence scores. There was no association between age and social confidence scores or a significant correlation between parental hearing status, suggesting that the hearing status of participants' families had no effect on their levels of social confidence. However, CI male users demonstrated lower social confidence out of the three group conditions, particularly when in the company of Deaf individuals.
Highlights
In the United Kingdom, individuals who have severe difficulty in either hearing or following speech, range from approximately ten million people who are ‘hard-of-hearing’ to 800,000 severely/profoundly deaf with more than 45,000 deaf children [3]
We used a version of the Deaf Acculturation Scale (DAS) [43] that was designed for adolescents by Maxwell-McCaw [43]; who thought the version would be suit our needs
As adolescents with implants tend to have hearing parents, they are more likely to have greater social identification with the hearing rather than the Deaf community [57]. This may have an effect upon their levels of social confidence in Deaf environments, as they are exposed to largely hearing home and social environments rather than the Deaf Community
Summary
In the United Kingdom, individuals who have severe difficulty in either hearing or following speech, range from approximately ten million people who are ‘hard-of-hearing’ (hh) to 800,000 severely/profoundly deaf with more than 45,000 deaf children [3]. The introduction of Cochlear Implants (CI) has resulted in spoken language development for young deaf people being more achievable. In 2009, 71% of Deaf children failed to gain the United Kingdom expected General Certificate of Secondary Education (G.C.S.E.) five grade passes (A-C), the school leaving grades for sixteen year olds [3,5]). Implants have become part of the normal intervention process for those with severe hearing problems, with evidence to suggest that earlier implantation results in a better outcome in both auditory and verbal development [6]. The term Deafi is used to identify individuals who belong to the Deaf community (i.e. not audiologically deaf individual in the hearing community)
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