Deaf Identity Research Articles

Deaf Women’s Use of Sign Language and Deaf Identity: Focusing on Growth Over Time

Deaf Women’s Use of Sign Language and Deaf Identity: Focusing on Growth Over Time

The (in)visibility of deafness: Identity, stigma, quality of lifeand the potential role of totally implantable cochlear implants.

The disclosure of deafness is complex, given the historic and on-going stigma associated with being deaf. The aim of this study was to explore how identity, stigma, and quality of life may be impacted when using cochlear implants (CIs) and totally implantable cochlear implants (TICIs). The physical difference between these two assistive listening devices is significant, given many CI users opt to hide their sound processor behind hair or headwear, in contrast to TICIs (an emerging technology) whereby all components are implanted internally and thus invisible. This qualitative study involved semistructured interviews and demographic questionnaires with 12 adult participants with more than 1 year of experience using their CI. Participants were recruited Australia-wide through community organisations that support deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. Interview transcripts were analysed thematically, with the themes generated through an inductive process, with consensus generated through group working with three members from the research team. Four major themes were identified: (1) CI challenges; (2) The importance of social and support networks; (3) Identity and disclosure and (4) Concerns about TICIs. The underlying finding was centred around the construction of deaf identity. Participant attitudes were generally categorised as 'Loud and proud', with the recognition that displaying the CI was an extension of self, something to be proud of, and a means to normalise deafness; or 'Out of sight and out of mind', which sought to minimise the visibility of deafness. While both identities differed in how deafness is disclosed, they are fundamentally related to the same ideas of self-agency and empowerment. TICIs present a novel opportunity-the ability for CI users to control the visibility of their deafness and thus control disclosure. This study explored the impact of stigma and categorised two core identities that CI users construct. Future directions include investigating potential CI candidates, to explore if TICIs may be a facilitator to CI uptake. The semistructured interview guide was developed in consultation with adults with CIs. Feedback led to adjustments and improvement to the interview guide. In addition, F. R. has a lived experience with hearing loss, and C. Y. L. is an executive committee member for a nonprofit charity organisation that supports families that are D/deaf and hard-of-hearing.

Political participation among deaf youth in Great Britain.

Variations in political participation are linked to demographic factors, socioeconomic disparities, and cultural-ethnic diversity. Existing research has primarily explored reduced political involvement among individuals with disabilities, particularly in electoral politics. However, little research has attended the involvement of deaf people specifically. This is of interest because deaf youth are at an intersection of disability, language and cultural identity with their language affiliations and rejection or acceptance of disability evolving through childhood. This study draws from original data collected via an online survey, comprising 163 deaf young respondents aged 16-19 in Great Britain. We compare their levels of political participation with those of general population peers to explore how sociodemographic factors, alongside variations in self-identification as deaf, and meaningful interactions with other deaf people contribute to explain their political engagement. The results challenge conventional wisdom by demonstrating that deaf youth participate more actively in politics than their hearing peers in various forms of political involvement, including collective, contact, and institutional activism. We also recognize differences among deaf youth and propose that social aspects of identity formation, particularly embracing a deaf identity and having deaf friends, can boost certain forms of political engagement. In summary, this study underscores the importance of acknowledging the diversity of deaf youth in terms of affiliation with various forms of deaf identity, rendering their experience different from both disabled and hearing youth. By identifying the factors driving heightened political participation, policymakers and advocates can develop strategies to enhance political engagement among all young people, regardless of their hearing status.

Sebutlah Kami Tuli: Call Us Deaf

Indonesia is an archipelagic nation consisting of diverse ethnicities and languages in southeast Asia. As in all nations, one of the linguistic communities found across the islands is made up of Deaf people. The limited research available about these Deaf Indonesians tends to focus on the linguistics of their language, BISINDO. However, almost nothing is known about their cultural traditions except studies about a Deaf Village in Bali. Currently, there are ongoing discussions among Deaf Indonesian communities in Java about Deaf identity. Most of these Deaf members espouse a cultural view of what it means to be Deaf. The argument centers on what is the correct term for a person who is deaf; one side of the argument is that Deaf people have a cultural identity, expressed as tuli (Deaf) while the other side maintains a medical view, expressed as tuna rungu (hearing impaired). These Indonesian Deaf perspectives are shared and documented for potential future research.

“What have YOU done in the past few years?” Deaf BSL users’ experiences of caring for people with dementia during COVID-19

PurposeDeaf people, who are British Sign Language (BSL) users, are, at times, carers for their parent or spouse when they have dementia. This can be a challenging role for the wider population, but if the common language in service provision is not one you share, then this care can be impacted by the lack of formal structures that support the Deaf caring role. This study aims to explore the experiences of Deaf carers supporting people with dementia, in an unpaid role, during the COVID-19 pandemic to understand more about their potential support preferences.Design/methodology/approachOnline interviews with seven Deaf carers sharing their experiences of supporting their family member with dementia happened during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Interpretive phenomenological analysis was used to qualitatively examine each Deaf carers’ stories.FindingsFindings included Deaf carers’ lack of access to information, surrendering their autonomy to hearing family members to communicate with health-care professionals, with overarching isolation within local communities and online. Findings show a widespread infrastructural failure to meet the linguistic and specific support needs of this minority population.Research limitations/implicationsSeven Deaf carers took part in this study. This means the findings may not be generalisable.Practical implicationsHealth-care professionals and social care structures need to develop robust clear communication pathways for Deaf carers to receive the support needed to provide effective care.Social implicationsIf health-care professionals undertake training about Deaf people and BSL, that will mean Deaf carers will receive effective support to be able to care for a person living with dementia. This means that their Deaf identity will be recognised within the mainstream and the care provided will be much more effective for the person with dementia.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, these are the first interviews undertaken with Deaf carers of people with dementia during the COVID-19 pandemic and its subsequent lockdowns. Understanding everyday barriers and social care limitations in terms of language access will enable Deaf carers to assert their rights and for care professionals to adapt their communication to match the individuals involved in the care package.

14 A Culturally and Linguistically Informed Approach to the Development of a Cognitive Screener for Deaf Adults using American Sign Language

Objective:When assessing individuals from diverse backgrounds, APA ethical principles emphasize the consideration of language and culture when selecting appropriate measures. Research among hearing, English-speaking individuals has shown the effects in identifying cognitive deficits when language, culture, and educational background are not considered in the selection and administration of measures (Ardilla, 2007). Among the Deaf community in the US, a minority group with a unique culture and language (American Sign Language: ASL), there have been few attempts to adapt existing English cognitive measures. Factors complicating this include research resources given the limited number of neuropsychologists and researchers who understand both the complexities of the measures as well as the linguistic and cultural factors within the Deaf population. The goal of the current project is to develop a culturally informed interpretation of a cognitive screening tool for appropriate use with older Deaf adults.Participants and Methods:Item selection was informed by MMSE data from Dean et al. (2009) and methods utilized by Atkinson et al. (2015). Items selection occurred through consultation with three neuropsychologists and graduate peers with either native signing abilities or demonstrated ASL fluency, as well as Deaf identities, cultural affiliation and or community engagement. Selection considered the potential for translation errors, particularly related to equivalence of translation from a spoken modality to a signed. Items were categorized into the following domains: Orientation, Attention, Memory, Language, Executive Functioning, Visuospatial, and Performance Validity. Two native signers (Deaf interpreters) provided formal translation of the items. The measure was piloted with 20 deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) adult signers (ages M=41.10, SD=5.50, Range=31-48). Items were prerecorded to standardize the administration, which was shown to participants through the screenshare function of Zoom software.Results:The average performance was 100.80 (SD=3.91)/ 105 possible points. Within the memory domain, some errors, especially for word selection on delayed recall, were noted which may be related to sign choice and dialect. Additionally, with culture-specific episodic memory items, participants 35% of participants were unable to provide a correct answer with qualitative responses indicating this information may be more familiar to a subset of the Deaf community that had attended Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. There was a significant positive relationship between ASL fluency, determined by the ASL-Comprehension Test, and performance on the cognitive screener (r(18)=.54, p=.01) while age of onset of deafness (r(18)=-.16, p=.51) and age of ASL acquisition (r(18)= .21, p=.37), were not significant.Conclusions:Results of this preliminary project yielded a measure that benefited from inclusion of content experts in the field during the process of interpretation and translation. It appears appropriate for Deaf signers who are proficient in ASL. The pattern of correlations suggests the measure may be appropriate for use with fluent signers with experience in ASL acquisition. Further development of the measure should focus on appropriate items that address the diversity of the Deaf experience as well as continue to explore inclusive translation approaches.

THEORETICAL EXCURSION TO RESEARCHES OF THE PROBLEM OF SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING OF PERSONS WITH HEARING IMPAIRMENTS

The article considers the theoretical foundations of the study of the problem of the subjective well-being of persons with hearing impairments, provides conceptual and operational models of the dissertation research, which are based on the scientific developments of well-being as a theoretical problem by E. Diner, K. Riff, R. Ryan and E. Desi, M. Seligman, O. Vlasova, L. Serdiuk, I. Danyliuk, T. Danylchenko and others and a study of individual factors of the well-being in persons with hearing impairments by Mousley V.L and Chaudoir S, M. Chapman, and J. Dammeyer et al. A number of social and psychological factors of the subjective well-being of persons with hearing deprivation are distinguished, such as: handicap, self-esteem, anxiety, frustration, rigidity, "I-Concept", level of social support; demographic factors that simultaneously affect the subjective well-being of a person with hearing impairment, in particular the level and time of hearing loss, article, age, type of language used by persons with hearing impairment, as well as medical hearing aids, socialization conditions (type of educational institution, family socialization, broadcasting environment). A number of methods that will be used in the empirical study have been translated from English: 1. Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965). 2. Satisfaction with Life Scale by E. Diener (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, Griffin, 1985). 3. Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) by G. Zimet ((Zimet et al., 1988). 4. Hearing Handicap Inventory for adults (HHIA) (Newman, Weinstein, Jacobson, et al., 1991). 5. Ryff’s Psychological Well-Being Scales (PWB) (Ryff, 1989). 6. Projective Test of M. H. Kuhn, T.S. McPartland "Who am I"(Kuhn M. H., McPartland T. S.,1954). 6. The Deaf Identity Development Scale by N.S.Glickman and J. C. Carey (DIDS) (Glickman, Carey, 1993) . "Self-Assessment of Mental States according to G. Eysenck"(Raigorodskyi, 2001). An author's questionnaire was created for respondents with the hearing impairments (it includes information about age, gender, education/work, information about parents, relationships, degree of hearing loss, use of hearing aids/cochlear implants, etc.). It is justified to conduct a pilot study in order to check the reliability of the measured scales of the selected methods. The study of the well-being of a person with the hearing impairment is planned to be carried out through the cultural identity of such persons. The RStudio programming language will be used to calculate the obtained data.

Satisfaction with life in a sample of prelingually deaf cochlear implant users with a good command of spoken Polish as the primary language

IntroductionThis study investigated the level of satisfaction with life (SWL) in a group of cochlear implant (CI) users who had been prelingually deaf but were orally educated. They had received one or two CIs (as a child, adolescent, or adult) and were highly competent Polish speakers. This study looked at three factors that may affect SWL – psychosocial, deafness/hearing and communication related, and sociodemographic. MethodsThe participants were prelingually deaf CI users who had learned highly competent spoken Polish as their primary language. They had been educated in mainstream or integrated schools (not schools for the deaf), and had no other disability or severe illness. Measurements were done with 5 questionnaires: the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS), the I–Others Questionnaire, the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), the Deaf Identity Development Scale (DIDS), and the Nijmegen Cochlear Implant Questionnaire (NCIQ). ResultsThe SWL level of the group was similar to that of the standard Polish population. SWL was positively related to positive self-perception, acceptance of oneself as a deaf person, and to perceiving the benefits of having a CI (as measured by three NCIQ domains: self-esteem, activity limitations, and social interactions). On the other hand, negative self-perception, marginal deaf identity, and depressive symptoms were negatively related to SWL. There was no relationship between SWL and knowledge of sign language. Lower depressive symptoms and greater hearing loss were both significant predictors of SWL, although those who used two CIs generally had a lower SWL. ConclusionsPrelingually deaf CI users with low SWL require psychological support in many spheres, including working through problems of deaf identity, self-acceptance, and depression. Additional research should involve diverse DHH CI users, including those with limited spoken Polish competency or sign language skills, as well as members of the Polish Deaf community.

Deaf Identity, Social Relationships, and Social Support: Toward a Microsociological Perspective.

This study is the first to analyze data from a national survey to investigate the significance for deaf identity of the different forms of social and technological support that deaf people rely upon. Data were derived from a survey among 839 deaf people and were analyzed with regard to social identification as deaf, hearing, bicultural, and marginal. Findings showed connections between technology and identity, including the use of a range of technology to support being culturally deaf. Findings also showed that the deaf and hearing groups had strong homophilous social networks, while the bicultural group tended toward more mixed but equally strong social connectivity. The marginal group had a much thinner social connectivity and relied more upon institutional social support, findings that are in line with previous research revealing a sub-group struggling with social participation and well-being. Theoretically, the paper builds bridges between the fields of social identity and microsociology and shows how a microsociological perspective brings attention to the significance of reiterated social relations and practice for constructing social identity.

Identity construction among deaf adolescents and young adults: A literature review.

Identity construction is an integral developmental task for adolescents and young adults (AYA). The intersection of deaf identity and disabling hearing loss (DHL) adds a layer to the complex process of identity construction. This literature review highlights the self-ascribed deaf identities of AYA and seeks to understand how AYA with DHL forge these identities. Knowledge areas for prospective research and practice are uncovered. A traditional literature review of qualitative empirical evidence on AYA's accounts of their deaf identity construction was conducted on seminal literature and peer-reviewed journals in psychology, disability studies and deaf studies. The emerging self-ascribed deaf identities of AYA are diverse. The identities include Deaf, hearing, hard-of-hearing (HOH), bicultural HOH, identities that detach from disability, bicultural DeaF, unresolved and fluid identities. Complex trade-offs exist where the construction of certain identities forgoes certain reasonable accommodations, interventions or relations that are critical for personal development and wellbeing. Current literature orients deaf identity formation around hearing status and Deaf-hearing communal dynamics. In-depth research comprising facets of AYA's personal, enacted and relational identities is required to conscientise rehabilitation professionals about the nuances of deaf identity issues and how to develop interventions that are supportive and responsive to the clinical and psychosocial challenges of AYA with DHL. This paper deviates from the d/Deaf identity dichotomy, revealing a spectrum of deaf identities that AYA forge. The rationales of AYA's deaf identities, underlying processes and possible vulnerable identities are unpacked. Recommendations for prospective research pertaining to identity construction among deaf AYA are made.

Performing Deaf Identity and Deaf Gain in Michael Arden’s 2015 Spring Awakening

This article examines the 2015 revival of Spring Awakening on Broadway by director Michael Arden, which restaged the musical for both a deaf and hearing audience. The performance of Deaf identity in the musical is read through Tobin Siebers’s concept the “disability masquerade,” whereby the “overvisibility” of ASL reclaims Deaf identity, as well as through elements of Deaf Gain, namely the bilingual structure of the musical and what can be learned from the Deaf experience of music. The integration of ASL into the choreography amplifies the kinesthetic quality of the performance and engages the audience physically, producing what Matthew Reason and Dee Reynolds have termed “kinesthetic empathy,” while the bilingual structure accentuates the underlying themes of interpersonal communication. The combination of the affirmative disability masquerade with aspects of Deaf Gain produces a performance that reimagines bilingual access and inclusive aesthetics, and confronts its hearing audience with their own kinesthetic relationship to the world, communication, and music.

"I Have a Dream and I Wish it Would Come True".

Deaf Bedouin young women in Israel experience marginalization, discrimination, and institutional neglect, which, coupled with the traditions of Bedouin society, pose a complex challenge to social inclusion. This qualitative study of 14 deaf Bedouin young women, using a semi-structured questionnaire, found that instead of providing support, their socio-ethnic affiliation is a source of suffering, whereas their deaf identity and their belonging to the deaf community are sources of strength and self-esteem. The study's contribution is that it presents the unique story of deaf Bedouin young women and reveals how belonging to the deaf community helps them to accept their deafness as uniqueness rather than as a disability and enables them to hold on to their dreams of higher education, obtaining rewarding work, and marrying and raising a family.

Deaf Identity Under Pressure: Experiences of Deaf Persons in Iceland.

Over the past decades, changes in technology and policy have made developing and maintaining identity and community increasingly challenging for Deaf individuals. This is particularly obvious in Iceland, where the Deaf community is threatened in its existence. This paper reports on an empirical study that explores how Deaf individuals experience developing and maintaining a positive identity in various areas, including family life, working life, and social life. The study approaches deaf identities as multifaceted and dynamic, and particular emphasis is placed on the role of social interactions in identity-related processes. Qualitative interviews were conducted among members of the Icelandic Deaf community and analyzed using a phenomenological approach. The results indicate that social interactions within the Deaf community are a key factor in developing and maintaining Deaf identity. However, decreasing numbers in the Deaf community make its members explore other opportunities, and they experience being Deaf in Iceland as an insecure identity.

Translanguaging Practices of a Multiethnic and Multilingual Deaf Family in a Raciolinguistic World and Beyond

In this autoethnography, I recount the translanguaging practices of my multiethnic and multigenerational signing deaf family in Manila, Philippines. I examine the impact of a multilingual upbringing on how family members function in various milieus, particularly in education. I discuss how language use throughout my childhood has impacted my experiences with languaging after immigrating to the United States as an adult. Interspersed in this personal narrative are traipses into historical and sociological observations about the Filipino community’s view of the deaf identity and how deaf Filipinos have been and are still being regarded. Finally, I explore the promulgation and implementation of the language policies in my motherland and assimilation efforts of immigrant parents on the translanguaging practices of the Filipino deaf here in the United States. I describe the ways in which home discourse practices affect the educational experiences of deaf Filipino immigrants in the U.S.

Deaf Identity Salience: Tracing Daphne’s Deaf Identity Salience Through Switched at Birth

Mainstream television scarcely features Deaf persons. When they do, they are usually cameo, secondary, and rarely multidimensional characters. This paper examines Deaf identity of a main character, Daphne Vasquez, on the popular show Switched at Birth. We analyze moments where Daphne’s identity, a constructed Deaf identity, is showcased. We map how her identity is salient across seasons and then examine key moments of identity formation as Daphne negotiates her Deafness. We find a strong display of Deaf identity salience and impactful moments in the show that resulted in more positive, holistic representations of Deafness. In recent years, the media has come under increased scrutiny for limited representations of minority identities; this case study seeks to contribute to that conversation by studying a show explicitly focused on increased representation. This work is important as it not only examines a show which successfully features a character with a traditionally stigmatized identity but simultaneously quantifies how that identity is invoked as a message to viewers. This paper bridges cultural sociology with social psychology to gain a deeper understanding of the importance of identity representation in entertainment media and comments directly on the social impact of Daphne’s character on Deaf presence in 21st century media.

Woke Cinderella: Twenty-First-Century Adaptations

Woke Cinderella: Twenty-First-Century Adaptations is a timely collection of 12 essays that explore the concept of wokeness in twenty-first-century text, film, and television versions of American Cinderellas. Woltmann defines wokeness as “being culturally competent, sensitive, and aware” (p. 1). She positions the term “woke” within recent activism, including the Black Lives Matter movement, and identifies wokeness as a practice in which the text and audience engage, rather than an inherent characteristic of a text (pp. 6–7). Along with the theme of wokeness, Cristina Bacchilega's politics of wonder and the intersectionality of gender and race are central to Woltmann's introduction and many of the essays that follow, giving the heart of the collection a more unified theoretical feel despite the diverse topics and authors. The United States focus of Woltmann's collection complements the primarily European focus of other collections or other single-tale studies of Cinderella, including Cinderella across Cultures: New Directions and Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Martine Hennard Dutheil de la Rochère, Gillian Lathey, and Monika Wozniak, eds., 2016).The essays are divided into three relatively loose sections and bookended by Woltmann's “Introduction” and “Conclusion.” The first section, “Girl Power: Feminist and Queer Readings,” explores the post-feminism of Generation Z, with its reactions to feminism and materialism across a range of ages. Two standout essays focus on specific demographics within Generation Z: “Gen Z Cinder(f)ellas,” by Sarah E. Maier and Jessica Raven, explores the cultural expectations in Generation Z teen culture, while “With This Shoe I Thee Wed” by Aoileann Ní Éigeartaigh explores the postfeminist movement for women in the workforce. Focusing on the specific intended audience allows the authors to create a strong sense of the cultural Zeitgeist that shaped these Cinderella messages.The second section, “(Re)Production: A Classic Tale Told Anew,” includes essays that look at the concept of wokeness through a range of perspectives, making it difficult to characterize but very engaging. Camille S. Alexander's “Tiana Can't Stay Woke” takes an especially strong look at wokeness as a practice of engagement. Alexander explores Disney's Cinderella narrative embedded in The Princess and the Frog (2009). Among other things, Alexander tracks cultural engagement in the creation of the film and its relationship to the film's message. This section also includes the only essay that explores the concept of wokeness and ableism: Carolina Alves Magaldi and Lucas Alves Mendes’ “Deaf Cinderella.” This essay analyzes the first Brazilian book published in both Portuguese and Sign Writing: Deaf Cinderella (2003; Cinderela Surda). Magaldi and Mendes argue that this children's story is a landmark in “constructing a woke cultural deaf identity among deaf children” (p. 165) because the two deaf characters, Prince Charming and Cinderella, find community with each other as well as romance. It is a strong addition to this collection as well as fairy-tale studies at large, which rarely addresses issues of ableism.The third section, “Post-human and Post-truth Cinderellas,” begins with a post-humanist take on Cinderella with dragons and cyborgs in Rachel L. Carazo's “Dragons, Magical Objects, and Social Criticism” and Alexandra Lykissas’ “Cyborg-erella.” Ryan Habermeyer's “Once Upon a Time in Nazi-Occupied France” concludes the final section with a shift to post-truth. He specifically positions the film Inglourious Basterds (2009) in the growing post-truth culture surrounding Brexit and Donald Trump's presidency.As Woltmann states in the introduction, this collection does not intend to engage with the traditional folkloric, deep historical, or psychoanalytic approaches used in folklore or fairy-tale studies. Rather, this collection creates a wide-ranging social history for recent Cinderella adaptations, making it especially useful for classes or research that address film and television adaptations of fairy tales. As with similar studies, the scope of this study is as much a drawback as it is a necessity. However, the diversity of perspectives and adaptations add to recent conversations about Cinderella as two new film adaptations of this fairy tale premiere this year. Woke Cinderella is an engaging read that juxtaposes an equal number of experienced scholars with new voices in fairy-tale studies, highlighting the continued power and relevance of this fairy tale today.

Deaf identity construction in Malaysia

This paper focuses on the identity creation processes of Deaf people in Malaysian society using an intersectionality approach to issues of identity, disability, and Deaf studies. Deaf people belong to a marginalized community and typically experience stereotyped, prejudiced, and stigmatized treatment from the hearing community, which has a serious impact on their social and personal identity development. Without sufficient information about the process of identity creation for Deaf people, the hearing community cannot reduce inequality nor can it increase social integration and stability for the Deaf community. There is a paucity of research about this identity creation process in Malaysia, and few studies have used identity-related theories and Deaf studies to examine the issue. This study uses a constructivist point of view, employing an interpretive phenomenological epistemology in order to construct insightful accounts of participants’ personal and interpersonal experience in mainstream society. The data was analyzed using methods associated with grounded theory and constant comparative analysis in order to reveal the extent to which they identify themselves, that is linguistic minority or PWD. The findings suggest that, on the one hand, mainstream society categorizes Deaf people as Persons with Disabilities rather than as a linguistic minority; on the other hand, without realizing it, Deaf people typically accept society's evaluation by identifying with it and playing the expected roles of PWD.

Discrimination and Deaf Adolescents' Subjective Well-Being: The Role of Deaf Identity.

This study tested the influence of Deaf identity (cognitive identification and affective identification) on the association between perceived deaf discrimination and subjective well-being among Chinese adolescents who are deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH), based on the rejection-identification model. Questionnaires on perceived deaf discrimination, subjective well-being, Deaf identity, and demographic information were completed by 246 DHH students (15-23years old) from special residential schools in China. The results indicated that: (1) higher level of perceived deaf discrimination was significantly associated with lower level of subjective well-being (direct effect = -0.24, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [-0.37, -0.12], p < .001); (2) there was a significant indirect effect of perceived deaf discrimination on subjective well-being via cognitive identification (indirect effect = -0.07, 95% CI = [-0.12, -0.01], p < .05); and (3) positive affective identification due to increased cognitive identification with Deaf community may help counteract the negative impact of perceived deaf discrimination on subjective well-being (indirect effect = 0.06, 95% CI = [0.03, 0.10], p < .001). These findings further support the notion that the different components of group identification should be examined separately.

Improving Communication Among Providers Serving D/deaf Populations in Mental Health Settings

&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; Mental health is as critically important as physical health. The status of one’s mental health can be greatly impacted by environmental, social, psychological factors, and traumatic experiences that interfere with daily living. Deaf populations who utilize American Sign Language (ASL) for daily communication face a unique set of obstacles to accessing quality mental health care, and the lack of access to effective counseling due to linguistic barriers can contribute to the deterioration of mental health symptoms. This paper will guide non-D/deaf mental health clinicians to become more familiar with deaf culture and will underscore the potential of language accommodation to relieve burdens felt by deaf individuals.&#x0D; Disclaimer: “Deaf” will be used interchangeably with “deaf” to demonstrate inclusivity with the multiplicity of deaf identity; the D iscapitalized to show affiliation to a cultural community and hard-of- hearing people who primarily use ASL for communication.&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D;

The Struggle to Fit in: A Qualitative Study on the Sense of Belonging and Well-being of Deaf People in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.

The sense of belonging plays an important role in a person’s well-being. It also acts as a protective factor against mental distress. Deaf people struggle to fit into the dominant hearing society due to communication barriers. The multi-languages used in Malaysian families add to this communication challenge. Communication breakdown leaves the deaf person socially excluded while a poor sense of belonging also increases their vulnerability to mental health issues. Hence, this study explored the deaf person’s sense of belonging and well-being through their social experiences in Malaysia. Baumeister’s need-to-belong theory served as the theoretical framework of this study. An Ethnographic approach with in-depth interviews and participant observation was used to explore the social experiences of six Chinese deaf adults, aged 20–37, residing in Ipoh. Their hearing parents were interviewed as well to obtain parents’ perspective of the child’s well-being in the earlier years. Participants were selected using the purposive and snowballing sampling method. Upon data saturation, thematic analysis was used to identify themes, patterns, and interpret its meanings. The main themes that emerged from the data was the “struggle to fit in”, “emotional effect”, and “quality social connections”. Findings of this study can be used in the formation of policies and strategies to ensure that deaf individuals are not excluded from their communities. Cultivating an inclusive community and developing the deaf community offers a better sense of belonging, which would help increase well-being of deaf people. Future research may focus on deaf identity and well-being of deaf youth in Malaysia.