Children Who are Hearing Impaired with Additional Disabilities and Related Aspects of Parental Stress

Abstract

In a large-scale study performed in Germany, 317 parents were asked to complete both the Parenting Stress Index and an additional questionnaire on demographics and related information. This article explores the question of parenting stress for parents of children who are hearing impaired with additional disabilities. Results showed consistently high stress scores in the Child Domain, whereas the Parent Domain showed (apart from one score) only a slight tendency toward greater stress. These results realistically portray the situation of parents of children who are multiply disabled and hearing impaired The results suggest that these parents should be provided with extended psychosocial intervention.