A Mixed-Methods Study
Open Access DepositedUnderstanding the Role of Social Support and Deaf Identity in the Psychological Well-Being of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Postsecondary Students
c) strengthening social support and optimizing environments for shaping well-being. Through the lens of the transformative framework, implications of the findings for social justice and recommendations for policy, research, and practice are discussed.
a) diverse definitions and pathways to well-being
This study used a convergent-transformative mixed-methods research design with an equal-status design to investigate how different kinds of social support and Deaf identities relate to psychological well-being among postsecondary students who are Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) across different higher education institutions in the United States.Seventy-seven DHH postsecondary students participated in quantitative data collection, which included measures of demographic information, psychological well-being (Ryff, 1989), Deaf identity (Bat-Chava, 2000
Glickman, 1996), and social support (Lombardi et al., 2011). Among these participants, seven participated in additional semi-structured interviews. Quantitative findings revealed that DHH postsecondary students had moderate to high average scores across all psychological well-being subscales. It also showed that DHH postsecondary students who self-identified as Deaf had the highest well-being scores, significantly higher than those who identified as Hearing, Bicultural, or Marginal. Additionally, social support was a statistically significant predictor of well-being for DHH postsecondary students. Qualitative findings suggested six themes that were important to participants’ psychological well-being, which are a) evolving Deaf identity and emotional growth, b) understanding and taking action to promote well-being, c) the essential influence of positive and supportive relationships in shaping well-being, d) the importance of agency and autonomy to well-being, e) challenges disrupt the improvement of well-being, f) recommendations for improving university and campus services. Integration of qualitative and quantitative findings occurred through the pillar integration process (PIP) and joint display. Synthesis of qualitative, quantitative, and integrated results suggested three multidimensional findings
b) limited exposure to the Deaf community and shifting sense of self over time
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Aljunaydil_gwu_0075A_17778.pdf | 2026-06-24 | Open Access |
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