Resilience in Kids of Deaf and Hearing Adults

Children of Deaf adults exhibit resilience despite being an underserved population. Positive parenting traits and a well-functioning community help these children gain empathy, responsibility, and maturity, as they act as linguistic and cultural intermediaries for their parents (Preston, 1994; Masten & Barnes, 2018). To study resilience in younger children of Deaf adults, seven families (six hearing families with hearing children and one Deaf family with a hearing child) were evaluated. Children between five-to-seven years were assessed for positive self-evaluation, hopefulness, motivation, and behaviors such as positive affect across five trials of online, unmoderated “Seek and Find” games. Parents completed the Multidimensional Assessment of Parenting Scale (MAPS) (Parent & Forehand, 2017) to assess dyadic interactions with their children before assisting them in the Seek and Find task. Results showed that children of Deaf adults remained high and steady in self-evaluation, motivation, and hopefulness throughout every puzzle trial compared to hearing children. These findings have implications for how children of Deaf adults cope when facing adversity. This “laid-back” nature can reduce anxiety, which is crucial for responding to stressful situations (Carroll, 2013). Further recruitment and investigation are needed to draw more conclusions about such markers of resilience. Carroll, L. (2013). Active Coping. In Gellman, M.D., Turner, J.R. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1005-9_1085 Masten, A.S., & Barnes, A.J. (2018). Resilience in Children: Developmental Perspectives. Children, 5(7), 98. https://doi.org/10.3390/children5070098 Parent, J., & Forehand, R. (2017). The Multidimensional Assessment of Parenting Scale (MAPS): Development and Psychometric Properties. Journal of Child Family Studies, 26, 2136-2151. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-017-0741-5 Preston, P. (1994). Mother father deaf: Living Between Sound and Silence [Doctoral dissertation, University of California-Berkeley]. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/58t007f5