Issues in researching the perspectives of deaf children

Research on children's perspectives has traditionally been neglected, influenced by adults' assumptions of children's vulnerability and incompetence. These assumptions produce methodological and ethical concerns about research with children, such as the need to protect the child from unethical research, validity of the data, and unequal research power relations. This paper reviews these points, with particular consideration to children who are deaf1. The first section examines the assumptions about children in research. These assumptions, as shown in the second section, have further implications for children with disabilities. Section III examines the challenges and issues that need to be taken into account when researching deaf children. Section IV then describes the methodological issues encountered in a study that examined the perspectives of 23 young deaf children in the US and UK.     

Attitudes toward occupations for deaf youth in Sweden

The study investigated the expressed advice of parents, teachers, and Deaf community leaders regarding careers for deaf students in Sweden. The research was conducted: (a) in a country where consensus has been achieved on recognition and accommodation of the educational needs of deaf students; (b) in a city with a very high concentration of deaf individuals, a continuum of educational facilities, and support for deaf students ranging from preschool through college; and, (c) in a community with a strong and active deaf organization and parent organization. The authors found that, despite many advances in the country, communication in the language of the greater society is a potent factor in limiting occupational possibilities for the Deaf.     

Developing a tobacco survey for deaf youth

Formidable barriers hinder use of standard data collection methods among deaf youth. Culturally and linguistically sensitive data collection strategies are needed to identify the unmet health and programming needs of this population. Unfortunately, researchers often fail to describe the issues involved in developing such targeted methods. The authors describe development of a culturally appropriate data collection instrument for a study of tobacco-related knowledge, attitudes, and practices among deaf youth. The instrument uses interactive multimedia technology to administer a questionnaire translated into the primary languages used by the Deaf. The procedures taken to accommodate this technology to these languages and to Deaf culture are described. This process yielded useful insights with respect to data collection not only among the Deaf, but among other frequently overlooked and underserved populations as well.     

Sexual abuse of deaf children. A retrospective analysis of the prevalence and characteristics of childhood sexual abuse among deaf adults in Norway

OBJECTIVE: North American studies conclude that deaf children may have a 2-3 times greater risk of sexual abuse than hearing children. No comparative studies are available in the Nordic countries. The present study was initiated to estimate the prevalence of childhood sexual abuse among deaf children in Norway, describe the nature of the abuse, and to examine risk factors. METHOD: A self-administered questionnaire was sent in 1999 to all 1150 adult deaf members of the Norwegian Deaf Register. The Deaf Register includes all deaf Norwegians. The questionnaire, which was also available videotaped in sign language, was an adapted version of a questionnaire used in a Norwegian survey among the general adult population in 1993. The results from this earlier study were used as a comparison group. RESULTS: Deaf females aged 18-65 who lost their hearing before the age of 9 (N = 177) reported sexual abuse with contact before the age of 18 years more than twice as often as hearing females, and deaf males more than three times as often as hearing males. The abuse of the deaf children was also more serious. Very few cases were reported to parents, teachers, or authorities. CONCLUSIONS: Deaf children are at greater risk of sexual abuse than hearing children. The special schools for the deaf represent an extra risk of abuse, regardless of whether the deaf pupils live at home or in boarding schools.     

Issues in the definition of child sexual abuse in prevalence research

Despite efforts to promote uniform criteria for defining child sexual abuse, there are still variations in the definitions adopted by individual researchers. This paper focuses on four representative studies, describes differences in the definitions used and examines how such differences may contribute to discrepancies in the estimated prevalence of abuse. Similarities and dissimilarities are identified in several areas: the upper age limit for child sexual abuse, the criteria used to define a given sexual experience as abusive, the inclusion or exclusion of experiences involving age peers, and the use of different criteria for incidents occurring during adolescence. Prevalence rates from one study, which used a slightly less restrictive definition of abuse, were recalculated based on the definitions of other researchers. This resulted in a 14% decrease in the number of individuals identified as abused. While this is a substantial change, it accounts for only a portion of the discrepancy in prevalence rates, suggesting that other factors, such as methodological differences, need to be examined with regard to their impact on prevalence rates. Historical and legal issues pertaining to the definition of child sexual abuse are also discussed.     

Trauma resilience among youth in substitute care demonstrating sexual behavior problems

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this longitudinal study was to examine the relationship between several proposed protective factors and trauma symptoms among highly vulnerable youth in the child welfare system. METHODS: Participants were 142 youth identified with a sexual behavior problem and their caregivers. Two waves of data were collected for each participant an average of 18 months apart. Foster parents reported on perceived level of support from the child welfare agency, youth involvement in club activities, and perception of youths' interpersonal and emotional competence. Youth provided self-reports of their sexual and physical abuse experiences, trauma symptoms at both time 1 and time 2, and ratings of parenting practices. RESULTS: Youth with higher rates of sexual abuse showed more negative affect and higher levels of sexual and non-sexual rumination at time 2, controlling for time 1 scores. Boys and youth who experienced better parenting practices displayed lower negative affect. Youth with higher levels of emotional and interpersonal competence showed lower levels of non-sexual rumination. Moderation analyses revealed that youth with more significant sexual abuse histories whose foster parents did not feel supported by their child welfare caseworkers had higher levels of sexually ruminative thoughts. Finally, the results revealed that only youth without sexual abuse histories experienced the benefits of club involvement in terms of lower sexual rumination scores. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that youth with significant vulnerabilities can still exhibit a degree of protection from trauma symptomatology in the presence of a wide range of personal and social variables. These findings support the efforts of stakeholders to promote strengths at the level of the individual, family, and broader social network and community.     

Development and testing of an antitobacco school-based curriculum for deaf and hard of hearing youth

A tobacco use prevention curriculum tailored for deaf/hard of hearing youth was tested using a quasi-experimental design. Two schools for the deaf received the curriculum; two served as noncurriculum controls. Surveys assessed changes in tobacco use, tobacco education exposure, and tobacco-related attitudes and knowledge among students in grades 7-12 over 3 school years (n = 511-616). Current (past month) smoking decreased significantly at one intervention school (23% to 8%,p = .007), and current smokeless tobacco use at the other (7.5% to 2.5%, p = .03). Tobacco education exposure and antitobacco attitudes and knowledge increased significantly at one or both intervention schools. At one control school, reported tobacco education exposure decreased (p < .001) and antitobacco attitudes increased (p = .01). The results indicate that the curriculum increased perceived tobacco education exposure and significantly affected tobacco-related practices, attitudes, and knowledge.     

Dating violence and sexual risk behaviors in a sample of at-risk Israeli youth

OBJECTIVE: This exploratory study examines the reported dating violence and its association with sexual risk behavior among Israeli adolescents, who are at risk for dropping out of school. METHODOLOGY: A convenience sample of 105 at-risk youth (51 boys and 54 girls) completed self-administered anonymous, questionnaires in small same-gender groups. The questionnaire included a Hebrew version of the Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationships Inventory, a valid scale developed in the US especially for adolescents, the Hebrew version of the Conflict Tactics Scale and the Self-Efficacy to Refuse Sexual Behavior Scale. RESULTS: We found high rates of perpetration of verbal-emotional abuse for both girls and boys. Rates of reported victimization by physical abuse were higher among boys but that by sexual abuse were higher among girls. We found a moderate inverse association between victimization by dating violence and practicing safe sex among girls. There was a similar but much stronger association for boys who were victims of dating violence. CONCLUSIONS: The high rates of various types of dating violence in Israel, at least among at-risk adolescents, should raise concern and motivate designing and implementing specific prevention interventions. The high reported rates of victimization from dating violence among boys are somewhat surprising and call for special attention and more indepth studies.     

聋校语文教学如何培养聋生的审美能力

聋校语文教材中呈现了多姿多彩的审美形态和审美范畴。在教学中要引领学生感受美,启迪学生鉴赏美,鼓励学生体现美。培养和提高聋生的审美能力。     

Attributions of female adolescent incest victims regarding their molestation

It has been suggested that how one cognitively appraises his or her victimization experience will influence one's psychological adjustment. In this study, content analysis was conducted on the explanations given for their molestation by 84 female adolescent incest victims. The relationship of these explanations with measures of self-esteem and depression was examined. No relationship was found between self-esteem or depression scores and whether or not subjects found some meaning or explanation for their being molested. However, the type of attribution was related to self-esteem and depression, with subjects significantly more depressed and having lower self-esteem if they attributed the molestation as due to something about self (internal attribution) versus some reason external to self (external attribution). Subjects making internal attributions were more likely to have experienced intercourse.     

Identifying determinants of risk of sexual victimization of youth: a multivariate approach

The present study argues that a greater understanding of the factors which contribute to a youth's sexual victimization is likely to not only be based on what we know about the youths who are victimized but also on comparative information on youths who are not. Selected social background variables from a sample of young victims (n = 20) and nonvictims (n = 21) representing a population of youths with histories of antisocial behavior were compared. Using stepwise discriminant analysis several factors relating to youths' home environment significantly discriminated victims from nonvictims. The results suggest that the probability of being sexually victimized is increased when the home environment is unstable and lacks adequate control over youths' activities. The need for improved research methodologies to achieve better identification of determinants of risk is discussed. Multivariate assessment of social, situational, and personal factors of victims and nonvictims is recommended as a potentially promising approach for improving current rape prevention efforts.     

Education of the deaf in nicaragua

Nicaragua now ranks as the third poorest country in the Western Hemisphere (Interamerican Development Bank [IDB], 1995). Occasionally educational improvement has been a national priority (Arrien & Matus, 1989). Usually, however, education rests at the lower end of a long list of national needs. The history of education in Nicaragua is marked by low teacher salaries, deteriorated physical plants, and scarcities of teaching materials (Arnove, 1994). Deaf education has been no exception. Teachers have been expected to learn empirically what deafness is and how to teach deaf children, to teach pupils who have had little or no language exposure before entering school, and to manage with the barest physical resources, all the while receiving only meager compensation. This article places education of the deaf in Nicaragua in a historical perspective, reports the results of a teacher survey, and discusses national policies that, so far, have had only indirect effects, but are likely to gain importance in the future.     

Seeing the deaf in deafness

This article draws on some of the existing literature on the politics of identity and representation as related to minority group formation. It applies this to constructions of Deaf2 identity from a cultural and linguistic perspective and contrasts this with dominant constructions of Deaf people as disabled. It highlights a number of ways in which Deaf identity differs from disabled identity, demonstrating that the cultural and linguistic construction of Deaf people is a more useful tool for analysis. It raises questions aimed to examine the discourse on deafness and seeks further debate on how best the discourse can be progressed. The article raises issues related to the use of terminology and labeling in the field of deafness. It contends that the continued use of the word deafness is unworkable and should be more widely recognized as a social construct, which has current usage beyond the paradigm in which it was originally intended. The article concludes by recognizing the importance of diversity in identity formation, while simultaneously calling for an appreciation of the need to incorporate this diversity within wider theorizing, focused on commonality and cohesion in identity as a source of collective expression and political mobilization.     

PTSD symptom cluster profiles of youth who have experienced sexual or physical abuse

The research examined whether youth (6–17 years old) who were referred for treatment due to sexual, physical, or both types of abuse presented with distinct profiles of PTSD DSM-IV-TR symptom clusters. When examining data for the 749 youth participants, five PTSD symptom cluster profiles were identified with each profile representing approximately 20% of the youth. The five profiles were also differentiated with respect to being referred for physical or sexual abuse, age, parental ratings of internalizing symptoms, and self-reported depression. The youth referred for treatment in the aftermath of child sexual, physical, or both sexual and physical abuse presented with different profiles of PTSD symptom clusters thereby suggesting a need for individualized tailoring of evidenced-based treatments. Two cognitive behavioral approaches, designed for traumatized children and either their nonoffending or offending parents, were described for treating youth with the distinct PTSD profiles.