Abstract
The aim of this study was to compare the personality traits of adolescents with cochlear implants (CIs) to a reference group (normal-hearing peers). In the past, the personality development of hearing impaired adolescents was severely compromised. Improved speech perception with CI significantly increased their perspectives. In addition, differences between the reference group and CI users were investigated on personality traits according to level of speech perception skills (high/low) and level of language comprehension (adequate/poor). A cohort of 59 adolescents was assessed 10 years after CI implantation. Personality traits were measured using the standardized Dutch Personality Questionnaire, which consists of 5 scales: Inadequacy, Social Inadequacy, Recalcitrance (RE), Perseverance, and Dominance. Speech perception and language comprehension were tested with standardized tests. The distributions of personality scores, in the clinical or non-clinical range, for the CI group were compared to the reference group using the Chi-Square test for Goodness of Fit. Adolescents with CI showed normal or favorable distributions on all personality scales except for the RE scale. There was a significant influence of speech perception and language comprehension on this scale. Consequently, adolescents with CI who demonstrated high speech perception and adequate language comprehension scores showed similar distribution patterns as the reference group on all personality scales. In conclusion; personality traits that reflect social relations, self-conscience, and school- and task orientation in adolescents with CI are similar to those in normal-hearing peers. This holds, despite variations in speech perception ability and language comprehension levels, for the CI group. On the RE scale, the adolescents with CI with low speech perception and poor language comprehension scores are more likely to score in the clinical deviant range and are at risk.
Highlights
Profound hearing impairment (HI), from birth or early childhood has a lifelong influence on communication, language development, mental health, and social and emotional wellbeing (Cambra, 1996; de Graaf and Bijl, 2002)
Significant correlations were found between age at implantation and speech perception; rs = −0.540, p = 0.000, two-tailed, n = 56, between age at implantation and language comprehension; rs = −0.463, p = 0.000, two-tailed, n = 56, and between speech perception and language comprehension; rs = 0.534, p = 0.000, two-tailed, n = 53 for the total cochlear implants (CIs) group
“Personality Scales,” we present the results for the total CI group, followed by the results according to the speech perception and language comprehension subgroups
Summary
Profound hearing impairment (HI), from birth or early childhood has a lifelong influence on communication, language development, mental health, and social and emotional wellbeing (Cambra, 1996; de Graaf and Bijl, 2002). Limitations in hearing and (secondary) problems in communication and language development negatively affect the mental health of profoundly HI. Personality of Adolescents with CI children with hearing aids (Polat, 2003). Even with the most powerful hearing aids, children with a profound HI have no auditory access to environmental sounds, speech sounds, and spoken language. Hearing loss effects the information about social relations, such as cause and consequence. The impact of a combined sensory and communicative impairment, such as profound hearing loss, on social-emotional and psychosocial development is considerable
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