The determination of the social adaptation problems of the children with hearing deficiency and of their levels of hopelessness

V SUMMARY Planned in a definitive quality, this study was carried out to examine the relationship between the social adaptation problems of the children with hearing deficiency and the levels of their hopelessness, and to compare these data with socio-demographic characteristics. The study includes 50 children at or above the age of 13 who are trained and educated at the Erzurum Dede Korkut Primary School for Children with Hearing Deficiency in the 2000-2001 seasons. All of the children (at or above the age of 13) were included in the study without using exemplification method. The data for the study were collected through a questionnaire consisting of 28 questions to determine the socio-demographic characteristics of the children with hearing deficiency (13th question) and their social adaptation problems (15th question) and to determine the levels of their hopelessness through Beck Hopelessness Scale (20th question). Among the tests used in the analysis of the data are percentage methods, x2, Fisher's x2, Mann Whitney U (MWU), Kruskall Wallis (KW) tests. It has been found out that 74% of the children with hearing deficiency who were included in this study are in 13-15 age group and that 18% of them are male It has also been found out that all of the children's mothers (100%) are housewives and 64% of their fathers are workers and that 54% of their mothers and 58% of their fathers are primary school graduates. It has been found out that 68% of the families have a low-income level and 38% of them have been living in the cities outside Erzurum. It has also been determined that 42% of the children with hearing deficiency have been using hearing aids and 58% of them have known lip-reading and 8.1 % of the children using hearing aids have intimate relations with the people around. All of the children involved in the study (100%) have stated that social adaptation is necessary and important to them. The average point that the children with hearing deficiency got from the Hopelessness Scale and their standard deviation has been found as 8.50±4.53. The average of hopelessness point of the female children has been found as 9.44±4.27 and the relationship between the groups has been regarded as significant (p<0.05). It has been found out that age, the number of siblings, the education level of parents, the father's job, the monthly (level of) income, and the type of the family and the living place of the family don't affect the hopelessness level (p<0.05). It has been determined that using hearing aid, participation in social activities, intimacy with people, confidence in friends influence the hopelessness level (p<0.05). It has been found out that their parents about health issues inform 48% of the children with hearing deficiency and 58% them expect interest and patience from nurses. Some suggestions have been made to the issue in the light of the results obtained.