It is not just stress: parent personality in raising a deaf child

This study examined the impact and predictive ability of parental personality and perceived stress on behavior problems of their deaf child. One hundred and fourteen parents with a deaf child completed measures of personality, parenting stress, and child behavioral functioning. Higher parental neuroticism, which reflects a susceptibility to emotional and psychological distress, significantly predicted greater internalizing behaviors in younger deaf children, whereas higher levels of parenting stress and lower levels of parental conscientiousness were strongest predictors for externalizing behaviors. For older deaf children, higher levels of parental openness to experience predicted higher levels of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Results suggest a complicated interaction between parent personality and stress related to child adjustment, with implications for professionals working with parents of deaf children.