EXPLORING THE LEVELS OF IDENTITY CRISIS AMONG ADOLESCENTS WITH HEARING IMPAIRMENT IN PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

Abstract

Identity crisis means uncertainty and ambiguity in a person’s definition of self and his or her being, and it prevents him or her from having an integrated character. This research attempted to explore the levels of identity crisis among adolescents with hearing impairment based on demographic variables.  The study was descriptive in nature, and a survey method was used to collect data. The population of the study was hearing-impaired adolescents studying in government special education institutions Faisalabad Division of Punjab Province. A sample N=338 hearing-impaired students was selected through a cluster sampling technique. The respondents’ age group was 15 to 19 years and the response rate of respondents was 76%. Data was collected through the Identity Crisis Questionnaire (ICQ) developed by Suheri & Sabbah (2014).   ANOVA and t-test were used to analyze the identity crisis of hearing-impaired adolescents on the basis of different demographic variables. It was explored that majority (48.5%) of hearing-impaired adolescents having high level of identity crisis. of It was found that no significant difference was found among the levels of identity crisis among hearing-impaired adolescents based on their age, number of siblings, mother's education, mother's occupation, and family type.  It was also found that a significant difference was found among the level of identity crisis among hearing-impaired adolescents based on different districts, parents' socioeconomic status, level of hearing loss, their birth order, father's education, father's occupation, their gender, and living area.

Keywords Identity Crisis, Hearing Impaired Students, Level of Hearing Loss, Adolescents