The Relationship Between Self Stigma And Self-esteem In Hearing Impaired Middle School Students:the Moderating Effect Of Group Identity

Self-esteem is one of the core components of the individual's self-system and its level affects the individual's social ability,subjective initiative and the integrity and stability of character.High self-esteem is related to healthy,socially desirable behaviors.Low self-esteem is associated with undesired social behaviors.Some studies have pointed out that the development of self-esteem not only has an important impact on the mental health of students with hearing impairment,but also is closely related to their interpersonal relationship and life satisfaction.However,existing researches show that these students in the critical period of self-esteem development have lower overall self-esteem level than the ordinary middle school students.Among the many factors that affect the self-esteem level of these middle school students,selfstigma may be a factor which cannot be ignored.Due to the impairment or loss of auditory function,the cognitive styles,language features and communication methods of hearing impaired middle school students are very different from those of healthy listening groups.They are more vulnerable to the negative influence of stigma.The results of many studies on mental illness,neurological disease and other aspects show that there is a significant negative correlation between self-stigma and self-esteem,but the relative studies based on hearing-impaired middle school students are slightly insufficient.In addition,current researches in this area mostly focus on the direct relationship between self-stigma and self-esteem.As to whether there is a variable between self-stigma and self-esteem and how the internal mechanism works,researches are still limited.According to the identity threat model of stigma response,group identity may play a very complex and important role in influencing how stigma group members interpret and deal with stigma.Moreover,on the basis of the theory of self-esteem relevance,individual self-esteem depends on groups and the dependence varies.Thus,we hypothesize that group identity may has a moderating effect on self-stigma and self-esteem among hearing-impaired middle school students.Looking back to existing researches,the findings on the relationship between group identity and self-esteem are not consistent.Therefore,it is necessary to explore the relationship among self-stigma,group identity and self-esteem for hearing-impaired middle school students.Based on the literature review,this study combined the results of the interviews with these special students and the opinions from the teachers and experts of special education,and then compiled the “Group Identity Questionnaire for Hearing Impaired Middle School Students”,which helped to investigate the status of group identity among hearing impaired middle school students and explore the intrinsic relationship among their self-stigma,group identity and self-esteem.The aim is to provide an empirical basis for dispelling self-stigma and improving self-esteem of students with hearing impairment.The results of this study found:(1)In this study,hearing-impaired middle school students were selected as the research object,and a “ Group Identity Questionnaire for Hearing Impaired Middle School Students” was prepared.The questionnaire which is of good reliability and validity meets the requirements of pedagogy and psycho-metrics,and is suitable as a survey tool for studying the group identity of these students.(2)The average score of group identity in hearing impaired middle school students is 2.874,which is at an average level.Among the four dimensions of group identity,behavioral propensity scores are the highest,followed by group evaluations,then emotional identity and the lowest,group cognitive.(3)The group identity of hearing impaired middle school students has significant differences in gender,grade,different communication methods and different types of friends.In the group cognitive dimension,the scores of junior one students were significantly higher than junior three and senior one students.The scores of junior two students were notably higher than junior three,senior one and senior two students.In the behavioral tendency dimension,female students score significantly higher than male middle school students with hearing impairment;Among them,students that use sign language have the highest scores,while the ones that use spoken language have the lowest scores;These students who have fewer deaf friends and more listenable friends have obviously lower scores than other types.In terms of the total scores of group identity,the junior two and the senior two students reach the highest points in two stages respectively.While scores of the junior and the senior three students are the lowest of the two phases respectively;The group identity scores of these students with hearing impairment who used sign language,sign language and oral language were significantly higher than those who only used oral language.The students who have fewer deaf friends and more listenable friends have the lowest scores of group identity.On the contrary,those who have more deaf friends and less listenable friends have the highest scores.(4)The average score of self-stigma in hearing impaired middle school students is 2.240,which is at a medium level,and the detection rate of high self-stigma was 23.80%.The scores of each dimension from high to low are alienated> social avoidance> deprecated discrimination> stigma boycott.(5)The average score of self-esteem among these students is 2.834,which is at a medium level.Compared with the previous results of using Rosenberg self-esteem scale,the self-esteem level of students with hearing impairment is generally lower than that of healthy students.(6)The self-stigma of hearing-impaired middle school students has an obvious negatively predictable function to the level of self-esteem,while the group identity has an significant positively predictable function to the level of self-esteem.(7)Group identity has a moderating effect between self-stigma and self-esteem.And higher group identity can buffer the negative influence of self-stigma on self-esteem to some extent.Then this study proposes the following recommendations: First,improve the support system to speed up the elimination of self-stigma among students with hearing impairment;Second,strengthen group interaction to promote the development of profound high group identity among these students;Third,attach importance to transition services to improve the stability of their group identity;Fourth,shape an atmosphere of acceptance to help the hearing-impaired middle school students own safe and high esteem.