Discrimination and Deaf Adolescents' Subjective Well-Being: The Role of Deaf Identity. (20th May 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ma, Yidan; Xue, Weifeng; Liu, Qin; Xu, Yin
• Is Part Of: Journal of deaf studies and deaf education. Volume 27:Number 4(2022)
• Page Start: 399
• Page End: 407
• Publication Date: 2022-05-20
• Subjects: Deafness -- Periodicals; Deaf -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; 371.912
• DOI: 10.1093/deafed/enac013
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1081-4159

Abstract

Abstract: This study tested the influence of Deaf identity (cognitive identification and affective identification) on the association between perceived deaf discrimination and subjective well-being among Chinese adolescents who are deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH), based on the rejection-identification model. Questionnaires on perceived deaf discrimination, subjective well-being, Deaf identity, and demographic information were completed by 246 DHH students (15–23 years old) from special residential schools in China. The results indicated that: (1) higher level of perceived deaf discrimination was significantly associated with lower level of subjective well-being (direct effect = −0.24, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [−0.37, −0.12], p < .001); (2) there was a significant indirect effect of perceived deaf discrimination on subjective well-being via cognitive identification (indirect effect = −0.07, 95% CI = [−0.12, −0.01], p < .05); and (3) positive affective identification due to increased cognitive identification with Deaf community may help counteract the negative impact of perceived deaf discrimination on subjective well-being (indirect effect = 0.06, 95% CI = [0.03, 0.10], p < .001). These findings further support the notion that the different components of group identification should be examined separately.