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Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education vol. 9 no. 1 Ó Oxford University Press 2004; all rights reserved. DOI: 10.1093/deafed/enh005
16 Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 9:1 Winter 2004
challenges, worthy of investment and engagement’’ found a significant correlation with the factor ‘‘anxi-
(Antonovsky, 1987, p. 19). Sense of coherence thus is ety’’ (r 5 .52) in this study, but an equally significant
both a basic feeling and a certain view of the world connection with four secondary factors. They con-
that assumes that we have sufficient understanding of clude, therefore, that Antonovsky’s SOC is a highly
the things happening around us and that we are able complex personality disposition that cannot be ex-
to influence these events through the recruitment of plained solely through its high negative correlation
internal and external resources. with ‘‘anxiety.’’ Current research is not sufficiently
Sense of coherence is made up of three components: advanced to allow more definitive conclusions con-
First, it encompasses a sense of comprehensibility. People cerning this (Bengel, Strittmatter, & Willmann, 1998,
who have this sense of comprehensibility feel that they p. 44).
can approach all experiences, including novel ones, as Concerning the coping process of mothers with
including individual factors (e.g., physical factors, resources (e.g., support from partner, family members,
intelligence, etc.) but especially social and cultural relatives, friends, acquaintances, experts, self-help
factors such as social support, financial options, and groups, etc.), and child variables (e.g., extent of
cultural stability—there is a good chance that a strong handicap, age, sex, additional handicap, temperament,
sense of coherence will develop. Antonovsky sees even etc.). All of these affect the level of stress reported by
larger opportunities of change in adolescence because parents and the degree of life satisfaction and quality
of the many reorientation processes natural to this they feel they can achieve. There are also a number of
phase. At about the age of 30, however, sense of studies within the specific field of coping research in
coherence in his opinion is relatively firmly formed and families with deaf and hard-of-hearing children that
thereafter remains largely stable. arrive at similar conclusions (e.g., Backenroth, 1984;
Although according to Antonovsky’s theory a per- Calderon & Greenberg, 1999; Lederberg & Golbach,
generally face the task of parenting to a greater extent the school in a sealed envelope, with the school passing
than do fathers, they not only carry the major burden on the questionnaires to the university in bulk. Three
of care, but can also carry a high responsibility for the hundred thirty of 1395 questionnaires originally issued
quality of parenting for their (deaf and hard-of- (23.7%) were suitable for the final evaluation. Forty-
hearing) child. seven parents were excluded from this analysis because
of missing data for various demographic character-
Early development of attachment with children. Im- istics. The empirical analysis thus used 283 question-
portant insights into the success of parenting efforts naires (mothers: N 5 235; fathers: N 5 48). Only the
have been reported from the findings of attachment mothers’ sample is dealt with here.
research (see Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978; The sample’s representative character was checked
Main, 1995). According to these, attachment qualities by comparing the educational status of the responding
rating scale. Sample items include: Do you feel rather covered by the scale, 12 of the 20 items have a special
indifferent about what goes on around you, at times? How relevance to stress caused by caregiving, therapy, and
often do you feel the things you do are meaningless? Do interaction with the handicapped child. Sample items
you sometimes feel you are in an unfamiliar situation and include the following: I feel that my child’s handicap is
you do not know what to do? Have you ever felt unlucky? serious; I feel overtaxed in raising my child; I feel I’m
How often do you have feelings that make you fear you under pressure in raising my child; I think I’m in good
are losing control? health.
In order to test the content structure of the The scale’s reliability regarding internal consis-
coherence concept, we carried out a factor analysis tency shows optimal results for Cronbach’s alpha of
(main components analysis) with subsequent varimax .83, and reliability values—depending on the method
rotation. The resulting two-factor solution accounted used—between r 5.76 and .85. The reliability check of
Social support. Experienced social support was mea- Table 1 Statistical index values of model variables
sured by responses to a single item (I am satisfied with with interval/ordinal scale level
the support I receive from my social environment N M s Median Skewness Kurtosis
[family, relations, parents, friends, acquaintances, etc.]) SOC 235 63.6 12.3 — .33 .46
on a 5-step rating scale. This provides a necessarily STRS 235 35.8 10.1 — .46 .33
approximate assessment of their currently experienced ZA 235 6.9 1.9 7.0 .29 .26
ZUU 235 3.3 1.3 3.0 .24 1.13
social-support situation (which must, of course, be
Index: SOC 5 sense of coherence; STRS 5 parental stress; ZA 5 overall
treated with caution) in relation to SOC. life satisfaction; ZUU 5 social support; BEH 5 additional handicap (1 5
no, 2 5 yes); HRVN 5 hearing status of the child (1 5 moderately hard of
Demographics. On an additional sheet, mothers gave hearing: ,70 dB; 2 5 severely hard of hearing: 71–90 dB; 3 5 profoundly
deaf: .90 dB); LOGN 5 parents’ use of signs (1 5 no; 2 5 yes).
information about various data concerning themselves
Regarding the strength of sense of coherence, the The time elapsed since diagnosis failed to correlate
mean value of SOC for mothers of deaf and hard-of- with SOC. We compared the SOC value for mothers
hearing children (M 5 63.6, s 5 12.3, N 5 235) was for whom diagnosis was less than a year previously with
comparable to that of a German random female that of all other parents (M,1 year 5 64.5; M.1 year 5
sample (M 5 64.0, s 5 12.1, N 5 766; Franke, Elsesser, 64.3; F 5 .01, df 5 1, p .93). Even though the
Sitzler, Algermissen, & Kötter, 1998) as well as that available data are not longitudinal, so that we cannot
of a German representative female sample (M 5 64.3, make any statements about individual courses of
s 5 11.5, N 5 1089; Schumacher, Gunzelmann, & change and above all about the strength of sense of
Brähler, 2000). coherence before diagnosis, we can nevertheless
The mean measure of stress (M 5 35.8, s 5 10.1, surmise that the parents’ sense of coherence does not
N 5 235), using the standardization sample of the suffer a setback (at least not a severe or persisting one)
validation process for the mothers’ sample, was through diagnosis (for a differing view, see Margalit,
generally low (the mean value of 35.8 corresponds to Leyser, & Avraham, 1988). On the contrary, these
the 15th percentile). This suggests that, overall, suc- findings support the view, in accordance with Anto-
cessful coping seems to have taken place in this sample novsky’s theoretical position, that the strength of sense
with slightly older children (M 5 8.13, s 5 3.1; for of coherence at the time of diagnosis is an important
a discussion of current stress values for mothers of factor helping (or hindering, as the case may be)
deaf and hard-of-hearing children in different age parents to deal or cope with the child’s impairment
groups see Lederberg & Golbach, 2002). However, the in an adequate way. This view is also supported by
distribution of scores indicates some high values. High qualitative data collected from the mothers about their
stress values do not appear to be correlated with the (remembered) experience at the time of diagnosis and
age of the child (F 5 1.23, df 5 1, p .27). the present (not reported here) (Hintermair, 2002).
22 Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 9:1 Winter 2004
Table 2 Statistical index values of model variables with respect to stress processing (STRS). Mothers
with nominal scale level with a stronger sense of coherence had an advantage in
N 1 (N) 2 (N) 3 (N) Mode coping with the experience of raising a deaf and hard-
BEH 235 189 46 — 1 of-hearing child over mothers with lower SOC scores
HRVN 235 71 78 86 3 (path coefficient of .39). Sense of coherence was of
LOGN 235 188 47 — 1 relatively greater importance than that of experienced
Index: SOC 5 sense of coherence; STRS 5 parental stress; ZA 5 overall social support (ZUU, .25), bearing in mind that
life satisfaction; ZUU 5 social support; BEH 5 additional handicap (1 5
no, 2 5 yes); HRVN 5 hearing status of the child (1 5 moderately hard of interpretation of this factor must rest on responses to
hearing: ,70 dB; 2 5 severely hard of hearing: 71–90 dB; 3 5 profoundly a single question. Overall, the model confirms that
deaf: .90 dB); LOGN 5 parents’ use of signs (1 5 no; 2 5 yes).
both personal and social resources play an important
role in coping with an impairment, as suggested by
a deaf or hard-of-hearing child (LOGN) had no effect and this link is specifically reaffirmed by our findings.
on the mothers’ stress experience (.04). This result If it is still mothers—especially those of handicapped
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