Young adolescents' perception of their peers who wear hearing aids.
In order to evaluate the perceptions of young adolescents of their peers who wear hearing aids, observers were selected from four types of schools: rural, suburban, inner city, and a self-contained classroom for the hearing impaired. Observers made semantic differential ratings of two teen-aged peers, one of whom had normal hearing and one of whom had a moderately severe sensorineural hearing loss. Both boys spoke under three conditions: wearing a postauricular hearing aid, wearing a body aid, and wearing no aid at all. Results indicated at least partial support for the "hearing aid effect" (Blood and Blood, 1977) as evidenced by the differential perceptions of the observers as a function of the school they attended, differential reactions to the hearing impaired speaker and the one with normal hearing, and the absence, presence, and type of hearing aid worn. This study reports the perceptual similarities and differences among observer groups and between the two speakers. Further, it is suggested that the overall speech quality, in addition to the absence, presence, and type of hearing aid, is important to peer perceptions.
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D001290:Attitude; D006310:Hearing Aids; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000523:psychology*; D006316:Hearing Loss, High-Frequency / Q000523:psychology*; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D012917:Social Adjustment