Social Identity Theory (Tajfel, 1981) posits that members of minority groups achieve positive social identity by (a) attempting to gain access to the mainstream through individual mobility or (b) working with other group members to bring about social change. Some people may use a combination of both strategies. Through the use of cluster analysis, the existence of three identities associated with these strategies was discerned in a sample of 267 deaf adults: culturally hearing identity, culturally deaf identity, and bicultural identity, each comprising about a third of the sample. A subset of 56 people were interviewed in depth; excerpts are presented to illustrate the identity types. Qualified support was found for the prediction that people with culturally deaf and bicultural identities would have higher self-esteem.

Diversity of Deaf Identities.

Objective The present study sought to document the psycho-social adjustment of 181 school-aged deaf children who have had a cochlear implant for 4 or more yr and to examine parental satisfaction with the outcome of the implantation process on their child’s life and on their family’s life in general. Design Three measures were employed. One measure was a self-report instrument designed to assess perceived self-competence in children, one was a rating scale completed by parents that sought to assess the degree of their child’s personal-social adjustment, and the third was a questionnaire given to parents on which they rated their satisfaction with aspects of the cochlear implant and how it had affected their child’s functioning within the context of family life. Results Children generally perceived themselves (and parents perceived their children) as being competent and well adjusted in most aspects of daily life. Parents expressed a generally positive view of cochlear implantation and its effects on family life. None of the social-emotional adjustment measures was significantly related to the speech perception, speech production or language skills the child achieved postimplant. However, the parents’ satisfaction with their child’s cochlear implantation was significantly related to their child’s speech and language achievements. On the perceived self-competence instrument, younger children and those with longer use of the updated SPEAK speech processor gave themselves higher ratings. Parent ratings of their child’s adjustment tended to be higher for girls than for boys, for more rather than less intelligent children, and for children enrolled in private as opposed to public school settings. Conclusions Deaf children who have used a cochlear implant for 4 to 6 yr report that they are coping successfully with the demands of their social and school environment, regardless of their speech and language achievements after implantation. Parents’ ratings indicate that these children are emotionally and socially well adjusted and that they have benefited from cochlear implantation. To the extent that the children and their parents accurately reported their attitudes and feelings regarding their experiences at home and at school, these results represent an impressive level of personal and social adjustment when compared with previous literature on adjustment problems in deaf children. The extent to which these results are associated with cochlear implantation has not been determined and awaits comparative data from children without implants.

Personal, social, and family adjustment in school-aged children with a cochlear implant.

Empirical analysis of disability identity has great potential to improve understanding of the role of disability status in identity politics Despite ongoing discussions of the relevance of disability identity in the disability rights movement and political actions related to disability, there is limited research into its nature and its underlying psychological, social, and political constructs This may in part be caused by the lack of a theoretical model to guide analysis This article proposes a conceptual framework to guide empirical analysis of disability identity, outlining six potential construct domains and their sub-domains based on a review of scholarly discussions and empirical research

Conceptualizing Disability: Developing a Framework for Political Disability Identity

Within the framework of a longitudinal study of deaf children with cochlear implants, 11 children with implants were interviewed. The objective was to shed light on what it is like for a child to use a cochlear implant, based on these children's own experience with implants, which ranged from 5.0 to 7.5 years. Six of the children were in schools for the deaf, five in regular classes. All but one used an implant daily. The children appreciated that an implant enabled them to perceive sounds in the environment. Some of the children in regular classes could take part in one-to-one conversations with teachers but had difficulty following teaching and discussions. This observation was consistent with what the children's parents and teachers had maintained. Peer interaction was said to be best when other children had the use of at least some signs.

Interviews With Deaf Children About Their Experiences Using Cochlear Implants

In this study, the analytical educational experiences of 25 deaf adults are explored in relation to their identity. The qualitative analysis indicated that the most critical educational experiences for the participants' identity concerned their interactions with hearing or deaf peers and their language of communication with their peers at school. The participants with a hearing identity attended general schools, where they interacted with hearing peers in Greek, whereas the participants with a Deaf identity attended schools for the deaf, where they interacted with deaf peers in Greek Sign Language. The participants with a bicultural identity attended general schools, where they interacted with hearing peers in Greek, but they also had the chance to meet Deaf role models outside school, which played a critical role in the development of their identity.

John C. Carey

Papers

Measuring deaf cultural identities: A preliminary investigation

"Measuring deaf cultural identities: A preliminary investigation": Erratum.