Stress and Coping in Hearing Mothers of Children With Hearing Loss: Factors Affecting Mother and Child Adjustment

• Published in: American annals of the deaf (Washington, D.C. 1886) Vol. 144; no. 1; pp. 7 - 18
• Main Authors: Calderon, Rosemary, Greenberg, Mark T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC Conference of Educational Administrators of Schools and Programs for the Deaf 01-03-1999; Gallaudet University Press; American Annals of the Deaf
• Subjects: Adaptation, Psychological; Adolescent; Adult; Behavior Problems; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Children; Children & youth; Chronic Illness; Claims adjustment; Communication Skills; Coping; Data Analysis; Deafness; Ear, auditive nerve, cochleovestibular tract, facial nerve: diseases, semeiology; Ecological Factors; Emotional Adjustment; Family Attitudes; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Hard of Hearing; Hearing - physiology; Hearing disorders; Hearing Disorders - diagnosis; Hearing Impairments; Hearing loss; Humans; Illness and personality; Illness, stress and coping; Interpersonal Competence; Male; Medical sciences; Mother-Child Relations; Mothers; Non tumoral diseases; Otorhinolaryngology. Stomatology; Parent Attitudes; Parent Child Relationship; Parents; Parents & parenting; Predictor Variables; Problem Solving; Psychological stress; Psychology and medicine; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychopathology; Questionnaires; Reading Achievement; Reading Improvement; School age children; Social Adjustment; Social Networks; Social Support; Social Support Groups; Special Needs Students; Stress; Stress Management; Stress Variables; Stress, Psychological - psychology; Surveys and Questionnaires; Teacher Evaluation; Teacher Student Relationship; Teachers; Teaching Methods; Human; School age; Mother; Auditory disorder; Family environment; ENT disease; Psychological effect; Child; Stress; Hearing loss
• ISSN: 0002-726X; 1543-0375; 1543-0375
• DOI: 10.1353/aad.2012.0153

The present study examines maternal and child adjustment as a result of the application of a stress and coping model (Folkman, Schaefer, & Lazarus 1979) to factors associated with having a school-aged child with a hearing loss. Thirty-six hearing mothers of children with hearing loss participated in the study. Information was gathered through parent and teacher questionnaires and home interviews and observations. Results indicated that (a) social support emerged as an important predictor of maternal adjustment as well as a buffer between current life stress and maternal adjustment, and (b) maternal problem-solving skill emerged as a significant predictor of child adjustment and as a mediating factor between child's age and teacher rating of child adjustment. The discussion focuses on possible explanations for these findings, the utility of a competency-based rather than psychopathology-based perspective in understanding parent and child outcomes, and implications for intervention strategies.