The relationships between coping styles, personal adjustment, and anxiety in acquired hearing loss

This study investigated coping styles in relation to adjustment and anxiety in a sample of 62 acquired hearing impaired adults, They completed the Ways of Coping Questionnaire (Folkman Lazarus, 1988), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Speilberger, 1970), and the Communication Profile for the Hearing Impaired (Erdman & DeMorest, 1988). There were two hypotheses under investigation. The first hypothesis was that type of hearing loss would not be associated with adjustment and anxiety. The findings of this study supported this null hypothesis. The second hypothesis was that coping styles of seeking- social support, planful problem solving, and positive reappraisal would be related to better adjustment and decreased anxiety whereas the coping styles confrontive coping, distancing, self-controlling, accepting responsibility, escape-avoidance would be related to decreased adjustment and increased anxiety. Multiple regression analyses revealed that both escape-avoidance and accepting responsibility were predictors of adjustment and trait anxiety. Escape-avoidance was also found to be a predictor for state anxiety. Results are discussed in terms of coping styles used by hearing impaired persons to predict better overall adjustment and anxiety.