Improving the Self-Esteem and Aggression Control of Deaf Adolescent Girls: The Effectiveness of Life Skills Training

Many deaf adolescents tend to show more aggression, due to their less social and emotional skills. This also affects their self-evaluation and self-esteem. Life skills are related to the personal, intellectual, emotional, and physical development of an individual. The present study was done to examine the effectiveness of a life skills training program on improvement of the self-esteem and aggression control of deaf adolescents girls.

This quasi-experimental study with a pre-test and post-test design using a control group Was done on 34 female deaf adolescents who were studying in first, second, and third grade of high school in Nezam Mafi High School, Tehran, Iran. Participants were selected using a purposive convenience sampling method and were randomly divided into two groups (experimental and control groups). The Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI) and the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (AQ) were used to collect data. The life skills training program was delivered to the experimental group in eight 60-min sessions.

The results showed that the eight sessions of life skills training program significantly increased self-esteem (P<0.001) and decreased aggression of the experimental group of deaf adolescents girls (P<0.001) while there was no change in the control group.

According to the results, it can be concluded that life skills training should be considered as a method for improving the mental status of deaf adolescent girls. Since there may be less social experiences in deaf adolescents, a training program may help them to achieve more self-esteem skills and be more successful in social communications.