Identity crisis in the young blind and their impression of peer support

Abstract

Identity crisis was understood here as a developmental difficulty on the road to maturation. Little empirical data are available concerning identity crisis in adolescents with visual impairment, while the results of studies of social peer support remain contradictory. This has motivated us to examine the specifics of identity crisis in the blind in comparison to their sighted peers. Moreover, by using comparative analysis, we also wanted to give a contribution to a better understanding of social peer support and its relations with identity crisis in the young blind. 32 blind and 32 sighted adolescents were interviewed and given a checklist of identity crisis indicators. The results demonstrated that, comparatively, the blind participants' identity crisis was more intense and more often delayed, while their assessment of all three forms of peer support was lower. Moreover, the content of perceived emotional and informational support was similar while the content of perceived tangible peer support was completely different from that in the group of the sighted adolescents. Finally, perceived tangible peer support correlated significantly with identity crisis only in the group of the blind youth. Therefore, the findings underline the special importance of perceived tangible peer support to the young blind.

Keywords

• blindness
• adolescence
• identity crisis
• perceived peer support