Coping and Emotional Styles in Mothers of Children with Hearing Impairment

The unique long-term challenges that families of children with hearing impairment experience put them at greater risk for increasing parental stress levels. This study seeks whether children’s hearing impairment affects their mothers’ emotional and coping styles with stressful situations.

The coping inventory for stressful situations and the maternal emotional styles questionnaire were distributed among 108 mothers of hearing-impaired children and an equal number of mothers of normal children.

In the task-oriented, distraction, and social diversion styles, the mean scores of the mothers of healthy children were significantly higher than those of the mothers of hearing-impaired children. Regarding the emotion-oriented style, the mean score of the mothers of hearing-impaired children was significantly higher than that of the mothers of healthy children. With regard to the emotional coaching style, the mean score of the mothers of healthy children was significantly higher than that of the mothers of hearing-impaired children. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in the mean score of emotional dismissing.

It seems that mothers of hearing-impaired children use less effective coping and emotional styles that have adverse consequences for mothers and their children’s development.