Psychological resilience in deaf or hard-of-hearing students and associated factors: A cross-sectional study

Mental health in deaf and hard-of-hearing (D/HH) students is a severe issue. Psychological resilience is a well-established protective factor of mental health. We aimed to examine the current situation of psychological resilience in D/HH students and identify the associated factors. Using multi-stage sampling, we conveniently selected 2 special education colleges tailored for D/HH students and randomly selected 3 classrooms from each grade in each college with clustering sampling. Psychological resilience was measured by the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale. Univariate and multivariate linear regression models were applied to identify multiple levels of associated factors including individual, family, peer and social environmental factors. D/HH students had a middle level of psychological resilience. The results in multivariate linear regression model showed that D/HH students with leadership experience, acquired deafness, very good lip-reading ability, family annual income 120,000 RMB or above, more D/HH friends or both D/HH and hearing friends, more social support demonstrated better psychological resilience. Our findings would inform practice and policy to identify the D/HH students who are at greater risk and develop effective intervention strategies to improve the psychological resilience and mental health in this marginal population.