Depression in hearing-impaired children

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the levels of depressive symptoms and the unique contribution of two aspects of emotion regulation (coping and mood states) to the development of depression in hearing-impaired children and a control group.

Methods: In order to compare the groups, self-report questionnaires concerning symptoms of depression, coping strategies, and mood states were used. The study group consisted of 27 children with cochlear implants, 56 children with conventional hearing aids, and 117 normally hearing children.

Results: Hearing-impaired children reliably reported more symptoms of depression than their normally hearing peers. Degree of hearing loss, socioeconomic status, gender, and age were unrelated to the level of depressive symptoms. But attending mainstream schools or using exclusively speech for communication were related to fewer depressive symptoms. The associations with depressive symptoms differed between the groups. For hearing-impaired children, the cognitive aspects (coping) and the affective aspects (mood states) of emotional functioning contributed separately to the prediction of depressive symptoms. For normally hearing children an integration of cognitive and affective aspects was detected: adequate coping skills prevented the development of negative mood states and in turn depressive symptoms.

Conclusions: Hearing-impaired children reported more depressive symptoms than normally hearing children. Prevention and treatment of depression in hearing-impaired children could focus on the use of coping strategies adequately, because these strategies have a direct relation with the level of depression.