Lived Experience of the Hearing Adolescents of Parents with Severe and Profound Hearing Impairment: A Qualitative Study with a Phenomenological Approach

Abstract

Objective: Awareness of the life experiences of hearing adolescents of parents with hearing impairment is essential to assess their living conditions and provide appropriate services and is recognized as a humanitarian activity. In different countries, various educational and rehabilitation services and programs are provided to hearing people with deaf families. It is important that training programs designed based on lived experiences of individuals. The aim of this study was to investigate the phenomenology of the lived experiences of hearing adolescents of parents with hearing impairment in Isfahan city. Materials & Methods: This research was qualitative and based on a descriptive phenomenological approach that was conducted in 2019. Participants were ten hearing adolescents of parents with severe and profound hearing impairment in Isfahan schools who were selected using purposive sampling method. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data and the lived experiences of hearing adolescents of parents with hearing impairment were examined through interviews with them. The interviews lasted between 56 and 80 minutes. Colaizzi method was used to analyze the data. This method consists of seven steps, which are: reading all the important descriptions and findings carefully, extracting important phrases and sentences related to the phenomenon, conceptualizing the extracted important sentences, arranging participants' descriptions and common concepts in specific categories, converting all inferential ideas to comprehensive and complete descriptions, turning complete descriptions of the phenomenon into a real summary and final validation. Results: The interview results, after thematic extraction, were classified into 7 main themes and 38 sub-themes. The first main theme was parental acceptance, which included sub-themes such as acceptance of deaf parenting, willingness to communicate with parents, and social acceptance of parent. The second main theme was cultural values ​​and included sub-themes such as cultural differences, respect for cultures, and awareness of cultural values ​​and beliefs. The third main theme was the emotion wheel, which included sub-themes such as feelings of inadequacy and poor self-efficacy in parents, emotional instability, feelings of shame and doubt, anxiety and stress, feeling lonely, and the need for empathy. The fourth main theme was social conditions, which included sub-themes such as inappropriate attitudes toward deaf people, inappropriate reactions of others, social distance, poor information, poor social interaction, and low attention to social justice. The fifth main theme was cognition and thinking, which included sub-themes such as lack of parental awareness, misunderstanding of hearing and deaf people towards each other, dual thinking in hearing and deaf people, deaf parents' lack of attention to their children's future. The sixth main theme was support networks with sub-themes such as insufficient support from parents, poor support from formal and informal centers, and lack of coordination between supporting resources. The last major theme was life challenges, which included sub-themes such as behavior management, expectations, inadequate services, financial problems, and worries about the future. Conclusion: According to the research findings, an analysis of the lived experience of hearing adolescents who have parents with hearing impairment showed that they are affected in different ways by their parents' hearing. Therefore, these themes can be used to design educational and psychological programs for hearing adolescents of parents with hearing impairment.