The Effect of Social Skills Training on Perceived Competence of Female Adolescents with Deafness

BACKGROUND Although there are considerable researches on effectiveness of social skills training, little information is available on the effects of such training on perceived competence of adolescents with deafness. OBJECTIVES This study was conducted in special school settings to determine the effects of social skills training on perceived competence of female adolescents with deafness. PATIENTS AND METHODS A prepost quasi-experimental design was used to perform the study. Sixty nine female students with deafness who were enrolled in all of the four different special secondary schools in Tehran, Iran, between 2010 and 2011 participated in this research. Two of four secondary schools were randomly allocated to the intervention group (33 students), and the other two to the control group (36 students). The participants were between 11 and 21 years (Mean = 15.43; SD = 1.89), and more than three fourth of each groups ( i.e. 28 students in each groups) were affected by profound hearing impairment . The intervention group participated in twelve bi-weekly sessions. Pretest and posttest data were collected using the 'Hearing Impaired Children Self-Image Test'. The questionnaire was filled by an interviewer. This questionnaire asks students about their feeling toward their own competence in domains of cognitive, physical, socio-emotional and communication competence and school adjustment. The data was analyzed by using SPSS software, version 16. RESULTS The intervention led to significant improvement in total perceived competence scores of adolescents with deafness (P < 0.001) as well as in three domains of socio-emotional competence (P = 0.003), communication competence (P < 0.001), and school adjustment (P = 0.018). CONCLUSIONS It is likely that learning social skills in adolescents with deafness would improve their sense of competence, and emotional well being.