The role of coping strategies in life satisfaction and psychological well-being: an investigation with deaf and hearing parents

The main purpose of this investigation was to examine differences between deaf and hearing parents in relation to coping strategies, life satisfaction, and psychological well-being, as well as the role of coping strategies used by deaf and hearing parents to satisfy their own life and improve their psychological well-being. A sample of 75 adults, divided in 36 deaf and 39 hearing parents with deaf children (aged 4-7 yrs) and preadolescents (aged 9-13 yrs), were recruited from users referring to the Center for Deaf Families (Sicily). The Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced-NVI (Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub, 1989), the Satisfaction with Life scale (Pavot & Diener, 2008), and the Psychological Well- being Scales (Ryff & Keyes, 1995) were used. Deaf parents turned out to use more maladaptive coping strategies and reported lower psychological well-being than the hearing ones, with low levels of autonomy, personal growth, positive relationships, and purpose in life. Despite expectations to the contrary, deaf parents were more satisfied with their lives than the hearing ones. It seems that coping strategies, such as searching for social support and avoidance, negatively affected life expectations of both deaf and hearing parents, while turning to religion had positive effects; additionally, these coping strategies (especially, searching for social support, avoidance, and turning to religion) affected the psychological well-being of deaf and hearing parents. Future research might focus on the effects of other dimensions (e.g. resilience and religious beliefs) on well-being of parents of disabled children