Children’s psychosocial functioning in is known to be influenced by parental emotion discussion in early childhood. However, the associations between parental emotion discussion and children’s...Show moreChildren’s psychosocial functioning in is known to be influenced by parental emotion discussion in early childhood. However, the associations between parental emotion discussion and children’s psychosocial functioning have mainly been studied in the typically hearing (TH) population of children. Little is known about this association in the deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH) child population, who tend to be at risk of having lower psychosocial functioning. Our study investigated the impact of parental emotion discussion on three areas of DHH and TH children’s psychosocial functioning (externalizing behavior, peer problems, and prosocial behavior) with a cross-sectional study design using parent report data on 215 preschoolers aged 1–7.5 years (49.3% girls, 88 DHH). Contrary to what was previously reported in the literature, we found that DHH and TH children did not differ in psychosocial functioning, nor did their parents differ in their level of emotion discussion with their children. In line with previous research, our results indicated that more parental emotion discussion was related to less externalizing, and more prosocial behavior in their children, but no association was found between parental emotion discussion and peer problems in the children. Furthermore, the hearing status of the children did not affect the associations between parental emotion discussion and children’s psychosocial functioning in our study. Future studies should address the heterogeneity of the DHH population and their families, and clinical focus should be placed to optimize family based early intervention programs for DHH youth.Show less
Social inclusion in mainstream education plays a crucial role in the social development of deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. The aim of this study was to explore the social inclusion of DHH...Show moreSocial inclusion in mainstream education plays a crucial role in the social development of deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. The aim of this study was to explore the social inclusion of DHH children in the regular school setting and the role that classmates play in their social inclusion. Fifteen DHH children aged 8 – 13 years and 249 hearing peers aged 8 – 14 years participated in the study. 9 out of 13 participating classes included a DHH child. Social inclusion was measured by 4 measures: through self-reports of loneliness (total scores and two subdimensions: group integration and peer intimacy), peer nominations, teacher reports for social participation and parent reports for peer problems. Attitudes towards children with disabilities, self-compassion and sense of coherence were measured through self-reports. The results indicated that DHH and hearing children were similar in their peer acceptance and group integration, but differences occurred in loneliness and levels of intimacy in particular. No significant associations were found for class mean scores of attitudes towards children withdisabilities, self-compassion or sense of coherence and social inclusion measures. When peer nominations were examined, self-attitudes towards children with disabilities, self-compassion and sense of coherence showed no difference between peers who did and did not nominate DHH children as their friend. Regression analyses showed that girls had better self-attitudes than boys and higher levels of self-compassion predicted better self-attitudes. Furthermore, younger children expected more positive attitudes of classmates toward children with disabilities. Higher levels of sense of coherence were also a predictor of more positive attitudes of classmates.Show less
