Methods Used in the Study

The study included an internet survey distributed to the United States and Canada, and email interviews with participants from the U.S to get a more in-depth perspective on deaf people's experiences. All participants were 18 years old or older; had the ability to communicate in English; acquired their hearing impairments before age three; and were in regular contact with hearing people. This study had an emancipatory aim to promote self-empowerment and social change (Oliver, 2009).

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Survey Measures

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There were three survey measures that were created for this study, to inquire about the social experiences of deaf people. These included the Childhood Experiences Measure, the Microaggressions in Childhood Measure, and the Microagressions in Adulthood Measure. In addition, an existing measure, the Sense of Coherence - Orientation to Life Questionnaire was included, which measures how people manage stressors related to their sense of comprehensibility, manageability, and meaning of things in life (Antonovsky, 1987), to learn about the participants' well-being. Demographic questions were also included in the survey.

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Recruitment and Procedures

 

Participants were recruited through email announcements on deaf and disability listservs, deaf and disability organizations, and universities with Deaf or Disability Studies programs. The first 10 people who volunteered to do the interviews were chosen. The survey participants were entered into a drawing to win a $50 Amazon gift card. Also, the interview participants each received a $25 Amazon gift card. Interview participants were informed their responses were confidential and pseudonyms were used.

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Data Analysis

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Qualtrics, a survey platform, was used to collect the data, and then the data were transferred to SPSS for analyzing. All scores were added across scales, and bivariate correlations and multiple regression analyses were done. Parametric tests, which are tests that assume the data are normally distributed, were used for the analysis.

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For the email interviews, Microsoft Word was used to store and analyze the data, using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), to learn about the meanings participants made out of their experiences (Smith & Osborn, 2015).

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Data Analysis and Multiple Regression

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Bivariate corelations and descriptive statistics were done with the entire sample of participants (N = 278). A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was done with 222 of the 278 participants as there was missing data for some of the participants. The predictor variables were the Childhood Experiences Measure, Microaggressions in Childhood Measure, and Microaggressions in Adulthood Measure. The dependent variable was the Sense of Coherence Scale.

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How I Was Involved In the Research

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I kept a journal where I recorded insights about the themes, and I traced my analysis (Galleta, 2013). I reflected in my journal about the meanings the participants made, and the connections between the cases. I used my own understandings to learn about the meaning of the participants’ processes (Smith et al., 2009). When exploring the themes, I returned to the literature from which I created my research questions, design, and research lens from. I also kept a journal throughout my dissertation journey reflecting on deaf issues and my own experiences of being deaf. In addition, I shared ideas and insights about deaf issues with my friends and colleagues. 

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References

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Antonovsky, A. (1987). Unraveling the mystery of health: How people manage

stress and stay well. Jossey-Bass.

Oliver, M. (2009). Understanding disability: From theory to practice (2nd

Edition). Palgrave Macmillan.

Smith, J. A., & Osborn, M. (2015). Interpretive phenomenological analysis. In J.

A. Smith (Ed.), Qualitative psychology: A practical guide to research methods (3rd ed., pp. 25–52). SAGE Publications Inc.

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