Psychosocial and Demographic Correlates of Academic Performance of Hearing-impaired Adolescents

Academic performance has been considered as an interactive function of many psychosocial and demographic variables. The present study attempted to explore the nature and degree of relationship between academic performance and selected psychosocial (such as, stress, self-esteem, social-emotional adjustment) and demographic variables (such as, age, parents’ education and occupation, number of siblings, family income, age of onset of disability, preschool training and type of schooling). The sample consisted of 80 hearing-impaired class VIII and X students of both sexes aged 13 to 21 years of age, mostly from the lower and middle socio-economic class. A comparative group of 111 nonimpaired students was also included. The Hopkin’s Symptom Checklist for stress, Basavanna’s Self-Esteem Scale for self-esteem, Meadow/Kendall Socialemotional Scale for social-emotional adjustment and a personal proforma for demographic variables were administered. Results showed that stress had a significant inverse correlation with academic performance of non-impaired students, whereas the relationship was low positive in case of hearing-impaired students. While social-emotional adjustment enhanced academic performance of both groups, self-esteem did not relate significantly in either case. However, many socio-demographic variables like number of siblings, socio-economic status, and age were found to have significant correlation with academic performance of hearing-impaired students. The differences were analysed in relation to the impairment specific academic problems, educational system and the vital role played by the family.