Parenting Stress and Maternal Coherence: Mothers With Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing Children.

Jean, Yap Quin; Mazlan, Rafidah; Ahmad, Mahadir; Maamor, Nashrah

Purpose: The aim of this study was to develop a substantive theory that explains parenting stress among mothers of deaf or hard-of-hearing (D/HH) children. Method: Fifteen hearing mothers of children with severe-toprofound sensorineural hearing loss were interviewed. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, and a grounded theory approach was used to inductively analyze parental stress in mothers of D/HH children. Theory generation was achieved through triangulation of data sources and systematic organization of data into codes. The coding process identified salient themes that were constantly cross-checked and compared across data to further develop categories, properties, and tentative hypotheses. Results: In general, two main themes emerged from the interviews: the contextual stressors and stress-reducing resources. The contextual stressors were labeled as distress over audiology-related needs, pressure to acquire new knowledge and skills, apprehension about the child's future, and demoralizing negative social attitudes. The stress-reducing resources that moderated parenting stress were identified to be the child's progress, mother's characteristics, professional support, and social support. The interaction between the identified stressors and adjustment process uncovered a central theme termed maternal coherence. Conclusion: The substantive theory suggests that mothers of D/HH children can effectively manage parenting stress and increase well-being by capitalizing on relevant stress-reducing resources to achieve maternal coherence.

MALAYSIA; DEAFNESS & psychology; TREATMENT of deafness; TREATMENT of hearing disorders; DEAF children; ABILITY; CONTROL (Psychology); GROUNDED theory; INTELLECT; INTERVIEWING; RESEARCH methodology; PSYCHOLOGY of mothers; NEEDS assessment; PARENTING; RESEARCH evaluation; PSYCHOLOGICAL stress; TRAINING; QUALITATIVE research; CHILDREN with disabilities; SOCIAL attitudes; SOCIAL support; WELL-being; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; PSYCHOLOGY

American Journal of Audiology, 2018, Vol 27, Issue 3, p260

1059-0889

Academic Journal

10.1044/2018_AJA-17-0093