Abstract
Background: Hearing loss in children can have a detrimental impact on their development, thus lowering the psychological well-being of parents. This study examined the amount of parental stress, learned helplessness, and perceived social support in mothers of children with hearing loss (MCHL) and mothers of typically developing children (MTDC), as well as the relationship between various possible contributing factors to parental stress such as learned helplessness and perceived social support. Method: Three questionnaires measured parental stress (Parental Stress Scale; PSS), learned helplessness (Learned Helplessness Scale; LHS), and perceived social support (Perceived Social Support-Friends PSS-Fr and Perceived Social Support-Family PSS-Fa Scale) in 100 MCHL and 90 MTDC. All mothers had normal hearing and children aged 1 to 12 years. Mothers of children with any degree of bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, using hearing aids and/or cochlear implants, were included in the MCHL group. Children with hearing loss did not have any additional disabilities. Results: Parental stress and learned helplessness were not significantly different between the groups. The perceived social support was significantly lower in MCHL as compared to MTDC. Pearson correlation analysis with pooled data from both groups showed a small but significant negative correlation between parental stress and perceived social support. A moderately significant positive correlation existed between learned helplessness and parental stress. The relationship between learned helplessness and perceived social support was negative, being small but significant. Conclusions: The study findings indicate that parental stress was similar in both groups. As perceived social support increased, parental stress and learned helplessness decreased. Thus, the present study findings indicate the need for developing greater social support for MCHL.