Screening for psychological problems in deaf and hard of hearing students

This paper reports upon an evaluation of a school-based screening program aimed at detecting psychological problems1 in 495 deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students. The first aim of the study was to evaluate the actual implementation of this program. Furthermore, the prevalence of internalizing and externalizing problems in a subset of 277 DHH students was analysed and subsequently how these problems vary as a function of age, gender, context, and negative life circumstances (NLCs). The results show higher prevalence rates of psychological problems compared to typical hearing peers, but lower than in previous studies. More problems were observed in the context of school than at home. No age or gender differences were found, but significantly more internalizing problems in DHH adolescents than externalizing problems. Prevalence of psychological problems among DHH students without NLCs were significantly lower than among students with one or more NLCs. The results shows a screening program to identify psychological problems in special schools can be successfully implemented. Such programs will help to identify psychological problems at an early stage and provide care for DHH children and adolescents with psychological problems.