Social Experience and Hearing Loss

Our online survey aims to better understand how social and linguistic experiences affect the social and emotional well-being of young people with hearing loss.

In 2020, grad student Madison Pearson devised and collected this Online survey of adults who have had severe to profound hearing loss since childhood and their families She wrote her thesis on the results and graduated in 2021.

This was the first study in the Deaf Experience, Deaf Expression (DXDX) project, and the survey formed the basis of our follow-up questions for Zoom interviews in 2021. There's still a lot of information to analyze, though, so stay tuned for more!

Papers and Presentations

(*student author)

*Pearson, M. (2021). A multifactor comparison of pragmatics, social relationships, and discrimination among individuals with hearing loss. Master's thesis, Oklahoma State University.
*Pearson, M. (2021, April). A multifactor comparison of pragmatics, social relationships, and discrimination among individuals with hearing loss. Minnesota Speech-Language-Hearing Association (MNSHA), Online.

Student Corner

Students

Madison Pearson

Data and Materials

Survey responses from 52 adults with hearing loss and 31 family members
- Onset/severity of HL for adults: 12 baby (severe-profound), 15 childhood (all severities), 14 young adulthood (moderate to profound, 6 middle age (profound), 5 retirement (moderate to profound)
- 18 adults with HL also participated in Zoom interviews (see main DXDX project page)
Scores, tabulations, factor analysis, internal consistency, correlations between four survey blocks for adults with HL (see Pearson thesis):
- Being Understood, Pragmatics, Social Support, Discrimination
Responses for other blocks collected/not scored:
- Relationship Quality (new block)
- Personality: Big Five Inventory (BFI-44; John & Srivastava 1999)
- Depression Screener: Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2; Maurer 2012)
- Cochlear Implant Quality of Life (CIQOL-10; McRackan & Hand 2019)
Participant demographics (age, region, hearing loss severity, age of diagnosis, assistive devices, language use, type of schooling, etc.)
Surveys in Qualtrics, consent, flyers, IRB forms, etc.

Project Ideas

Examine relationships between other factors/survey blocks within the HL responses
Validate new survey blocks against the existing quality of life metric in the survey
Examine family responses alone or in relation to HL responses
Combine/compare survey responses to elaborations in the Zoom interviews in the DXDX project (18 overlapping participants or by demographics)