Factors Associated with Depression and Poor Academic Performance among the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Adolescents in Selected Public primary Schools in Nairobi County, Kenya.

Stellah Osoro Kerongo, Ph.D. Candidate in Clinical Psychology; Alice Munene, Psy.D; & Mary Mogute, Ph.D., Daystar University.

Abstract

According to World Health Organization (2012), depression is regarded as a common mental disorder. Moreover, depression symptoms are often linked with substantial comorbid impairments that negatively affect academic performance of Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) adolescents (Sommers, 2014). This paper examined factors associated with depression and poor academic performance among DHH adolescents in selected public primary schools in Nairobi County, Kenya. The 64 participants aged 14-20 were recruited for the study using Socio-Demographic Questionnaire (SDQ) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II). The Logit Linear regression analysis revealed the main factors contributing to participants’ academic performance as the mode of communication used (β = -.010 (p=0.014), frequency of participants’ caregiver assistance in doing homework (β= -0.153 (p=0.054), giving extra homework (β=0.005 (p=0.007) and those with whom participants shared their problems (β=0.111 (p=0.050). Further, the study findings revealed that there was association between predictive factors and academic performance; caregivers attending school organised meetings (p=0.034), encouraging participants to always work hard (p=0.034), caregivers being role models to participants (p=0.052) and participants being taught life skills by caregivers (p=0.006). In addition, the findings also indicated that the mode of communication used, how often caregivers assisted DHH adolescents in doing homework and giving of extra homework were predictive factors of DHH adolescents’ depression at p=0.01, p=0.005 and p=0.001, respectively. This study concluded that poor academic performance was associated with depression.

Keywords: adolescents, depression, deaf and hard of hearing, hearing impairment, academic performance.