How parents' make sense of their deaf child's mental health problems.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
How parents' make sense of their deaf child's mental health problems.
IRAS ID
211255
Contact name
Josie Lee Smith
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Canterbury Christ Church University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, 0 days
Research summary
This study will address a gap in knowledge regarding how do hearing parents conceptualise their deaf child’s mental health problems. Between 40-50% of deaf children develop mental health problems compared to 25% of hearing peers (Hindley, 2005; Hindley, Hill, McGuigan & Kitson, 1994). Ninety to 95% of deaf children are born to a hearing family (Brunger, Murray, O’Riordan, Matthews, Smith & Robin, 2000) and many of their parents have never encountered a deaf individual before. Often, when a child’s deafness is diagnosed, their hearing parents go through a grieving process of the loss experience of imagined child versus real child (Kampfe, 1989). Some parents take more than 20 years to grieve (Flaherty, 2015). Furthermore, there is a social stigma attached to deafness (Becker, 1981), which could affect the process of the acceptance of their deaf child (Stewart, 1991).
Given the above issues facing deaf children and their families, there is a need to develop the understanding of those practitioners, including clinical psychologists of how parents construct their understanding of their deaf child’s mental health problems. The gap in literature raises some questions, such as, is mental health problem seen as, 1) something deriving from, or part of the child’s deafness, or 2) separate from it. If parents are going to support deaf young people’s emotional wellbeing, then we will need to understand their parents and hopefully have implications on how clinical psychologists offer support and on how services are delivered.
Thus, the present qualititative study aims to explore how hearing people make sense of their deaf children’s mental health using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). This will be achieved by interviewing 10-12 parents whose deaf child has been referred to National Deaf Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service (NDCAMHS).
REC name
Wales REC 6
REC reference
17/WA/0067
Date of REC Opinion
6 Mar 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion