Social support, stressful life events, and psychological impairment : a study of deaf persons

This research addressed the issue of the mental health needs of deaf persons by measuring psychological impairment,life events and social support for deaf adults. To accomplish this goal, paper-and pencil tests that were used with hearing groups to measure each of the constructs were selected—the Langner Symptom Checklist, the Dohrenwend Life Event Scale, and the Social Support Index. The scales were rewritten to accommodate the reading level of deaf adults. The revised questionnaires were tested on a small sample of deaf adults and then administered to a larger sample of deaf adults (N=49). The unrevised questionnaires were administered to a sample of hearing adults (N=61).

The results of the comparisons of the deaf and hearing samples revealed that there were no significant differences between the groups for the number of current or past symptoms. Of the nine life event variables, only three showed significant differences (deaf respondents reported more events). Significant differences were found for the three social support variables. Deaf respondents always reported less support.

The relations among the life event variables, the social support variables, and the psychological symptom variables tested the buffering effect of social support. Correlations between symptoms and life events revealed only trivial relationships for each sample. The buffering effect of social support was not supported when examining the number of symptoms of low and high supported respondents across three levels of life events (low, moderate, and high) for both samples.

The results of the comparisons of the deaf and hearing respondents have limited validity due to the noncomparability of the two groups. First, the samples differed on several demographic characteristics. Second, there is a fundamental experiential difference between deaf and hearing people. The responses of the deaf respondents to the Social Support Index revealed that the concept of social support for deaf persons was not the same as for hearing persons. Future research with deaf persons on the buffering hypothesis should define the concept in terms of the norms of the deaf community.