Social Adjustment of Deaf Adolescents

Abstract

This paper was be based upon a survey conducted at the Department of Youth Work, University of Manchester, England, in a National Investigation into the Social Adjustment of Deaf Adolescents. The work was supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Royal National Institute for the Deaf and the Department of Education and Science. The sample of children studied were all in their final year at school at the commencement of the survey in 1965. They totalled 230 and were attending both special and ordinary schools. The areas in which the children resided were those covered by the Cheshire, Lancashire, Inner London or various North Eastern local authorities or the wide catchment areas of four special schools for the deaf.

Each of the respondents was subjected to an intensive test and interview battery which consisted of: (1) semi-structured interview with the child; (2) a semi-structured interview with the child's head or class teacher; (3) a semi-structured interview with one or both of the child's parents; (4) Administration of a psychological test battery consisting of the Chicago Non-Verbal Inventory, the Thurstone Primary Mental Abilities Battery, the Lee-Thorpe Occupational Interest Inventory and the Bristol Social Adjustment Guides. The later stages of the project, which will not be described in this paper, also included interviews with employers and Welfare Officers of the Deaf. The data collected by these techniques can be classified into factors concerned with general background, occupational expectation and provision, personality development and social adaptation and mobility.

The theoretical framework of the study is complex. It assumes that the problems of hearing impairment arise from impaired communication and “stigma” and the problems of adjustment arise from factors associated with personality development and interpersonal functioning. In practice it was decided to concentrate the analysis into four main areas, viz. Education, Employment, Social Welfare and Leisure, with a view to extending knowledge of the role and self image adopted by the hearing impaired adolescent. Throughout, the project was conducted at two levels which were called the practical and the integrative. Obviously, the former is the one which often receives the most attention but the study was also undertaken with a view to moving towards an integrated consideration of the social and individual forces which determine the adjustment of school leavers with a profound or a partial hearing loss.

The statistical analysis of the data is obviously a complex one. The sample was sub-divided on the basis of pure tone hearing loss, speech hearing loss, age of onset of impairment, type of school attended, social class, area of residence and sex. The association of each variable with the other variables was also studied. The method of analysis used chi-square and the t-test to investigate the significance of the differences occurring in the sub-samples. It is not proposed in this paper to present the detailed tabulation which runs to several reams of paper. Rather an attempt will be made to draw together findings and conclusions under certain common themes. Finally, certain formally phrased recommendations will be made. These will be specific to conditions as they exist in England but it is hoped they might also be relevant generally to other countries.

The author will take the position that the definitions of social maladjustment cannot be made without reference to the characteristic of the child's handicap. What is good adjustment for a child presenting one clinical picture may be maladjustment to a child presenting a differing one. Hence, this paper will concentrate upon establishing the ways in which the social functioning of the child interacts with the handicap of hearing impairment as it is found in this child. The result of this is that an overall description of the characteristics of the hearing impaired school leaver will not be given. To do this would incorrectly assume the existence of one single handicap, whereas the general term hearing impairment includes many different deficiences.

Throughout, the author will take the view that it is indicative of the poverty of our knowledge about social and emotional functioning in children suffering from a hearing loss that we invariably see the problems of hearing impairment as taking precedence over problems such as those of delinquency and mental disorder. The assumption seems to be that if we “cure the child's deafness” we will cure his other problems, whereas it may be that by “curing his other problems” we will, for many practical purposes, “cure his deafness.”

Finally as well as acknowledging the support of the Institutions making financial grants, I must also thank my colleagues, Mrs. P. M. Ravenhall, Miss G. Watchman and Mr. R. Woolfe; the schools participating in the study and all of the respondents who gave so freely of their time and convenience.

Résumé

Cette communication se base sur une enquěte poursuivie au Département de l'Oeuvre pour la Jeunesse de l'Université de Manchester, Angleterre, au cours d'une investigation nationale au sujet de l'adaptation sociale des adolescents atteints de surdité. La recherche a été subventionnée par la Fondation Calouste Guibenkian, par l'Institut Royal et National pour les Sourds, et par le Département de l'Education et de la Science. Les élèves qui composent l'échantillon étudié se trouvaient tous dans leur dernière année scolaire au moment du commencement de l'enquěte en 1965. Au nombre de 230, ils fréquentaient les uns des écoles spéciales, les autres des écoles ordinaires.

Chacun des répondants fut soumis à une série intensive de tests et d'entrevues, y compris: (1) une entrevue semi-schématique avec l'élève (2) une entrevue semi-schématique avec le principal de l'école ou avec le professeur qui est chargé de la classe; (3) une entrevue semi-schématique soit avec les deux parents de l'élève soit avec le père ou la mère; (4) l'administration d'une série de tests psychologiques, y compris le Chicago Non-Verbal Inventory, le Thurstone Primary Mental Abilities Battery, le Lee-Thorpe Occupational Interest Inventory et le Bristol Social Adjustment Guides. Les données rassemblées par ces techniques se prětent à une classification en facteurs se rapportant à l'environnement, les espérances au sujet du métier et les préparatifs faits à cet égard, le développement de la personalité, et l'adaptation et la mobilité sociales. Sans entrer dans les détails nous avons essayé de classer les résultats et les conclusions sous certains thèmes communs, et d'en tirer certaines recommendations.