Self-esteem of deaf and hard of hearing students in regular and special schools

Abstract

The study focuses on the self-esteem of deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) students from Slovenia. A total of 80 D/HH students from regular and special primary schools (grades 6–9) and from regular and special secondary schools (grades 1–4) completed the Self-Esteem Questionnaire (Lamovec 1994). For the entire group of D/HH students, the results of all self-esteem dimensions, including social, emotional and physical self and confidence, do not differ regarding their gender and level of hearing loss. Furthermore, almost no differences in self-esteem were found in respect to the students’ ages. Relative to the norms of hearing students, D/HH students achieved average results in each self-esteem dimension. D/HH students from regular schools had higher self-esteem in emotional and physical self and confidence than those from special schools. The final grade in Slovene language was an important predictor of D/HH students’ self-esteem in the dimension of confidence.