Predictors of resilience in deaf and hard of hearing adolescents and adolescents with developmental language disorders

BackgroundMany adolescents with communication problems (CP), in this case, deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) adolescents and those with developmental language disorders (DLD), tend to experience high levels of stress in their daily lives. Resilience is seen as a protective mechanism that supports adaptive functioning and helps navigate situations involving increased stress; however, little appears to be known about this group’s resilience and the factors that contribute to it.ObjectiveThis study assesses resilience and the predictive value of four factors contributing to resilience, dysfunctional schemas, theory of mind (ToM), executive functions (EFs), and social support, in adolescents with CP (DHH, DLD).Participants and setting: A total of 127 adolescents with CP (32 DHH adolescents and 95 with DLD) in special secondary education were assessed. To establish a normative baseline for resilience, a reference group of 86 adolescents without CP in mainstream secondary education was recruited for comparative analysis.MethodsTwo-sided t-tests and z-tests were used to compare all groups on resilience, and two-sided t-tests were performed to compare DHH adolescents with adolescents with DLD on dysfunctional schemas, ToM, EFs, and social support. Two multiple linear regression analyses, one with and one without controlling for adolescents’ type of communication problems, were conducted to examine the contributions of dysfunctional schemas, ToM, EFs, and social support to resilience.ResultsAdolescents with CP reported significantly lower resilience than the reference group (p 0.1). A multiple linear regression analysis revealed dysfunctional schemas as the only significant predictor of resilience (p < 0.001), with a standardized beta coefficient of −0.57 indicating a strong negative relationship.ConclusionAdolescents with CP appear to be a quite vulnerable group of youth with low resilience to protect them from the negative effects of stress. Their dysfunctional schemas seem to serve as a predictive factor of their resilience.