PSYCHOSOCIAL INFLUENCE OF HEARING IMPAIRMENT ON THE INTERPERSONAL BEHAVIOR OF YOUTHS WITH HEARING IMPAIRMENT IN OYO STATE, NIGERIA

Лицата со оштетен слух се соочуваат со многу проблеми поради нивната состојба. Тоа негативно влијае на нивната социјална и психолошка добросостојба, а уште повеќе ги погодува интерперсоналните односи. Затоа, ова истражување го испитува психосоцијалното влијание на оштетувањето на слухот врз интерперсоналните односи на младите со оштетен слух. Individuals with hearing impairment are confronted with a lot of problems due to the condition of their disability. This has a negative impact on their social and psychological wellbeing with multiplying effect on their interpersonal relationship. Therefore, this study investigated the psycho-social influence of hearing impairment on interpersonal behavior of youths with hearing loss. Методологија Methodology Истражувањето е реализирано со примена на анкета. Примерокот од 211 учесници со оштетен слух беше одбран од Федералниот колеџ за едукација (специјална) во Ојо, Нигерија. Применет е прашалникот од Скалата за психосоцијална компетенција (Psycho-social Competence Scale PCS) за прибирање податоци, со коефициент на веродостојност 0,72. The study adopted a survey research design. A sample consisting of 211 participants with hearing loss were purposively selected from the Federal College of Education (Special) Oyo, Nigeria. A questionnaire, part of Psycho-social Competence Scale (PCS), was used for data collection with reliability coefficient of 0.72. Резултати Results Резултатите покажаа дека оштетувањето на слухот кај младите влијае на социјалната интеракција, на нивната емоционална добросостојба и дека се чувствуваат инфериорни во присуство на лица без оштетување на слухот. The findings revealed that hearing impairement affects social interaction of youths with hearing impairment, hearing loss affects emotional wellbeing of youths with hearing impairment and youths with hearing impairment feel inferior in company of persons without hearing impairment.

Individuals with hearing impairment are confronted with a lot of problems due to the condition of their disability.This has a negative impact on their social and psychological wellbeing with multiplying effect on their interpersonal relationship.Therefore, this study investigated the psycho-social influence of hearing impairment on interpersonal behavior of youths with hearing loss.
The study adopted a survey research design.A sample consisting of 211 participants with hearing loss were purposively selected from the Federal College of Education (Special) Oyo, Nigeria.A questionnaire, part of Psycho-social Competence Scale (PCS), was used for data collection with reliability coefficient of 0.72.
The findings revealed that hearing impairement affects social interaction of youths with hearing impairment, hearing loss affects emotional wellbeing of youths with hearing impairment and youths with hearing impairment feel inferior in company of persons without hearing impairment.

The instrument is divided into two sections (A & B).
Section A is on the bio-data of the participants while Section B contained 25 items of structured questions with five subsections addressing behavioral patterns of a person with hearing loss.Out of 25 items of the question in the scale, 12 items addressing the psychosocial variables of the study were used in line with the research questions.For contents validity the instrument was given to experts in the field of psychology while the reliability of the instrument was obtained at 0.75 through a pilot test using Cronbach alpha formula.
Psychosocial competency scale was distributed among 211 participants purposively selected at the Federal College of Education (Special), Oyo and the responses were thereafter collected by the researcher.The data collected from the study were collated, coded and analysed using frequency count and simple percentage.
This section presents the results and the discussion of findings of the data collected.
Does hearing difficulty inhibit the extent of social interaction of youths with hearing loss?
Табела 1: Влијанието на губењето на слухот на социјалната интеракција на младите со оштетен слух statement.The implication from the cumulative percentages was that students with hearing loss don't mix well with nonhearing impaired peers.In item number three 3, 95 (44.7%) strongly disagree with the statement, 62 (29.1) disagree while 7 (3.9%)agree and 47 (22.3%) strongly agree with the statement.From the percentages, it is obvious that students with hearing impairment are not active members of the group they belong to.On item number four, 56 (26.5%) of the respondents strongly disagree with the statement, 50 (23.7%)disagree while 34 (16.1%)agree and 71 (33.6%) strongly agree with the statement.From the result, one can deduce that the participants have difficulty relating with others as a result of their disability.On item number five, 26 (12.3%), strongly disagree, 51 (24.2%) disagree while 64 (30.1%) agree and 70 (33.4%)strongly agree.From the responses of the participants this implies that students with hearing impairment don't interact freely with people in their community.
Does hearing loss affect the emotional wellbeing of youths with hearing impairment?
Табела 2: Влијанието на губењето на слухот на емоционалната добросостојба на младите со оштетен слух while 107 (50.7%) agree and 30 (14.2%) strongly agree with the statement.The percentage of participants that agree with the statement is more than those that oppose the statement.The implication is that youths with hearing impairment enjoy meaningful relationship with others despite their disabilities.On item number two, 39 (18.5%) strongly disagree with the statement, 52 (24.6%) ordinarily disagree while 12 (5.7%)agree 108 (51.2%) strongly agree with the statement.The implication is that youths with hearing impairment enjoy friendship with people without hearing impairment in their environment.On item number three, 12 (5.7%)strongly disagree with statement, 85 (40.3%) ordinarily disagree while 53 (25.1%) agree and 61 (28.9%) strongly agree with the statement.From the result, the percentage of youths that favorably agreed with the statement was higher than the percentage of youths that opposed the statement.The implication is that youths with hearing impairment have cordial relationship with their teachers and peers.
In Table 3, responses to item number one indicated that 109 (51.7%) disagree with the statement while 45 (21.3%) agree and 57(27.3%)strongly agree with the statement.From the responses above, it is obvious that the percentage of youths with hearing impairment that disagree with the statements is higher than the percentage of youths that agree.The implication is that communication sometimes poses difficulty for youths with hearing impairment.On item number two, 58 (27.5%) strongly disagree with the statement, 44 (20.9%) ordinarily disagree while 42(19.9%)agree and 67(31.8%)strongly agree.The result indicated that high percentage agrees with the statement.This means that youths with hearing impairment don't only want to relate mainly with people with hearing impairment.On item number three, 14 (6.6%) strongly disagree with the statement, 105 (49.8%) disagree while 33 (15.6% agree and 59 (28%) strongly agree.The responses of the participants indicated that high percentage disagree with the statement indicating that language often limits the level of interaction of youths with hearing impairment with other people.On item number four, 69 (32.7%) strongly disagree with the statement, 45 (21.3%) ordinarily disagree while 35 (16.6%) agree while 62 (24.4%) strongly agree.It is obvious that the percentage of youths with hearing impairment that did not support the statement is higher than those that agree with it.This indicates that youths with hearing impairment sometimes feel inferior to other people that can hear.

Дискусија Discussion
Истражувањето  (10), кои велат дека учениците со оштетен слух учествуваат во училишните активности и често се интерактивни со другите ученици.Понатаму, резултатите од третото истражувачко прашање покажуваат дека младите со оштетен слух секогаш се чувствуваат посмирено во друштво на други луѓе со оштетување на слухот отколку во друштво на луѓе без оштетување на слухот.Овој став мора да е резултат на некои од негативните однесувања на младите со оштетен слух во обидите за поврзување со некои луѓе во општеството коишто се трауматизирани од нивната по-difficult to adjust socially and psychologically.This might be the reason why some of them are withdrawn and exhibit some socially undesirable behaviors.The result is also in line with the study of Wiley (16) that reported that deaf children exhibit greater impulsivity and limited social interaction as a result of the lack of exposure.The result from the second research question also revealed that hearing loss affects emotional well-being of youths with hearing impairment.This is obvious from their responses that though some of them want to have meaningful relationships with others and want to have friendship with hearing people.Nevertheless, their inability to mix freely with others results into loneliness and feeling of depression.Adrea (15) supported the finding and observed that hearing disability often results with isolation and that isolation can easily distort emotional well-being of a person.Akinpelu (13) has also corroborated the finding and observed that hearing impairment affects individuals overtly.The above expression confirms Andrea (15) that remarked that hearing loss lowers the quality of life of most adolescents and adults with hearing impairment.The finding was also in line with Leigh, et al (18) and Hallam, Ashton, Sher-bourne&Galey (19) who reported that people with hearing impairement were more vulnerable to depression and that the rate of incidence of depression among this group was 4.8 times higher than the general population.However, the result is contrary to the report of Owolawi & Eleweke (10) that found that students with hearing impairment participated actively in school activities and interacted with other students frequently.Furthermore, the result of the third research question revealed that youths with hearing impairment always feel comfortable in company of other persons with hearing impairment than with those without hearing impairment.This attitude might be as a result of some negative behaviors that youths with hearing impairment experienced in the course of relating with some people in the society преченост.Сознанијата ги поткрепува Andrea (15), којшто вели дека оштетувањето на слухот влијае на социјалното, психолошкото и на академското ниво на погодените лица.Понатаму тврди дека луѓето со оштетен слух се склони на повлекување, стануваат помалку активни и ги избегнуваат социјалните контакти со другите луѓе во општеството.Тоа води кон комплекс на пониска вредност, што вообичаено е својствен за секој вид попреченост.
coupled with the trauma of their disabilities.Andrea (15) supported this finding and reported that hearing impairment has social, psychological and academic effects on the affected persons.He further stated that people with hearing impairment displayed withdrawal tendency, become less active and avoid social contact with other people in the society.This can lead to inferiority, complex that normally accompany every disability.

Заклучок Conclusion
Ова This study examined psychosocial influence of hearing impairment on the interpersonal behavior of youths in Oyo state, Nigeria.It is obvious from the study that, hearing impairment has negative impact on interpersonal relationship of youths with hearing disability in Nigeria.Youths with hearing impairment have restricted social interaction, suffer emotional trauma and have difficulties in adjustment.By implication, the negative impact of the disability account for disorganized personality as revealed by previous studies.In view of the above, it is imperative for all stakeholders to intensify effort in improving psychosocial well-being of people with hearing impairment in Nigeria.
 Constant re-orientation should be done, so as to change the attitudes and beliefs of the society towards the condition of hearing impairment.

Table 1 :
Effects of Hearing Loss on Social Interaction of Youths with Hearing Loss

Table 2 :
Effects of Hearing Loss on Emotional Wellbeing of youths with Hearing Impairment

Table 3 :
Effect of Hearing Loss on Social Interaction of Youths with Hearing Impairment Onyilofor F. The impact of family background on personality adjustment of visually impaired students.An unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Nigeria, Nsukka; 2002.4. Hallberg LR. and Carlsson, S.G.Hearing impairment, coping and perceived hearing handicap in middle aged subjects with acquired hearing loss.British Journal of Audiology.1991; 25:323-330. 5. Hallahan DP. and Kauffman JM.