Social skill, life satisfaction and locus of control in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired students

Abstract

Background and Aim: Some evidence suggests that hearing impairment has negative effect on psychological characters of hearing-impaired adolescences and they are more vulnerable to mental health problems than their hearing peers are. This was a comparative study of social skills, life satisfaction and external and internal locus of control in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired students. Methods: This multi-stage random sampling method consisted of 50 students with hearing impairment (boy and girls) and 50 matched normal-hearing students. The participants completed Matson evaluation of social skills with youngster, students life satisfaction, and Levenson multidimensional locus of control scales. Results: The results of multivariate analysis of variance showed statistically meaningful differences in social skills, life satisfaction and locus of control between the two groups (p=0.002 for all). Conclusion: Social skills in normal-hearing students were higher than students with hearing impairment and locus of control in normal student was more internally. Training the parents and school-staff on development of locus of control and making it more internally in hearing-impaired students is suggested.

Keywords

• Social skills
• life satisfaction
• locus of control
• hearing impairment
• middle-and highschool students