Abstract
Objective:
Hearing loss in children and adolescents can significantly impact social interactions, language development, and emotional well-being, often leading to academic and mental health challenges. This qualitative, retrospective study examines how individuals reflect on their experiences growing up with hearing loss, including the challenges they faced, the support they received, and the coping strategies they developed over time.
Design and study sample:
Participants aged 16 and older with personal experiences of hearing loss were recruited through audiology services in England and Scotland (UK), as well as community and online channels. Nineteen semi-structured interviews were conducted in person or online, following a flexible approach to explore participants’ retrospective accounts of growing up with hearing loss. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to identify, refine, and review themes, ensuring diverse perspectives were captured through collaborative analysis.
Results:
Interrelated themes were identified from participants’ reflections of growing up with hearing loss, showing how they continually adapt and reshape their experiences as part of an ongoing coping and adjustment process across various social contexts.
Conclusions:
This study highlights the lasting impacts of growing up with hearing loss on communication, social relationships, emotional well-being, and education.
Hearing loss in children and adolescents can significantly impact social interactions, language development, and emotional well-being, often leading to academic and mental health challenges. This qualitative, retrospective study examines how individuals reflect on their experiences growing up with hearing loss, including the challenges they faced, the support they received, and the coping strategies they developed over time.
Design and study sample:
Participants aged 16 and older with personal experiences of hearing loss were recruited through audiology services in England and Scotland (UK), as well as community and online channels. Nineteen semi-structured interviews were conducted in person or online, following a flexible approach to explore participants’ retrospective accounts of growing up with hearing loss. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to identify, refine, and review themes, ensuring diverse perspectives were captured through collaborative analysis.
Results:
Interrelated themes were identified from participants’ reflections of growing up with hearing loss, showing how they continually adapt and reshape their experiences as part of an ongoing coping and adjustment process across various social contexts.
Conclusions:
This study highlights the lasting impacts of growing up with hearing loss on communication, social relationships, emotional well-being, and education.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | International Journal of Audiology |
| Early online date | 23 Aug 2025 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 23 Aug 2025 |
Bibliographical note
Copyright © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group on behalf of British Society of Audiology, International Society of Audiology, and Nordic Audiological Society. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow theposting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Funding
This study is supported by an NIHR HSDR grant (Funding stream REF NIHR 131597). The sponsor for this study is the University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust. Aston University (Applied Audiology Research Group, College of Health and Life Sciences) is the supporting institution.
Keywords
- Hearing loss
- qualitative
- retrospective
- childhood
- adolescence
- audiology
- coping
- social support
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