Parent Perceptions of Children's Leisure and the Risk of Damaging Noise Exposure^†

† Preliminary findings of this research were presented at: XXXII World Congress of Audiology. Brisbane, Australia. May 2014 (oral paper). Imag!neU. Creating the Future Conference. University of Sydney, Faculty of Health Sciences, Lidcombe, Sydney. November 2014 (poster presentation).

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to survey the attitudes of parents of adolescent children (with, and without, hearing impairment), with the following objectives: (1) compare perceptions of the parent groups regarding the risk of leisure-noise-related hearing injury; and (2) investigate how comfortable parents felt endorsing their child's participation in a range of everyday leisure activities, some which may involve noise exposure. Cross-sectional cohort study. Experimental group — parents of adolescents (aged 13–18 years) with hearing impairment (HI group) n = 53. Control group — parents of age-matched youths with non-impaired/‘normal hearing’ (NH group) n = 70. Rasch modelling was applied to evaluate the internal validity and reliability of the leisure attitudes items. Rasch-generated interval-level data and raw ordinal-level data were used to identify systematic differences between groups. Most parents (HI and NH groups) perceived leisure-noise to be a significant health risk for young people in general, but few perceived their own child to be at high risk. Parents in the HI group were significantly less comfortable overall, and with several specific leisure activities, than parents in the NH group but, conversely, were more comfortable with two activities. Concerns related to a variety of factors. Leisure-time activities provide a major opportunity for children to socialize and they are a crucial part of healthy emotional and physical development. Parent attitudes may influence children's participation. Parents may benefit from support in identifying and managing concerns about the impact of hearing impairment on their children's leisure participation.

Keywords:

• adolescents
• disability
• hearing impairment
• leisure
• noise exposure
• parents
• participation
• survey

Acknowledgements

Denise Macoun (data collection and collation), Vivian Fabricatorian (administrative assistance) and Justin Scanlan (Rasch analysis). The authors also acknowledge the input from parents and professionals regarding the survey content, and the support of Australian Hearing, in particular: Alison King, Roger Hovey, the managers and audiologists who facilitated the distribution of surveys, and the parents who took part.

Disclaimer statements

Contributors The first author, Lyndal Carter devised the study concept and, with guidance from the other authors, developed the research protocol. Lyndal Carter conducted data collection, data entry and quality assurance of the data described in this paper. Authors Anita Bundy and Deborah Black guided the data analysis. The manuscript was drafted by the first author, in collaboration with Deborah Black, Anita Bundy and Warwick Williams.

Funding Financial support was provided by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing, OHS, and the NHRMC.

Conflicts of interest There is no conflict-of-interest.

Ethics approval Protocols were approved by the Australian Hearing Human Research Ethics Committee (AHHREC), and the Human Research Ethics Committee, University of Sydney.

Notes

† Preliminary findings of this research were presented at: XXXII World Congress of Audiology. Brisbane, Australia. May 2014 (oral paper). Imag!neU. Creating the Future Conference. University of Sydney, Faculty of Health Sciences, Lidcombe, Sydney. November 2014 (poster presentation).