INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING ON THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ADJUSTMENT OF

ADOLESCENTS WITH HEARING IMPAIRMENT IN OYO STATE, NIGERIA

By

Olufemi Timothy, AdigunMatric No: 132949

Introduction

Hearing loss is a hidden disability

It become evident in context where communicative skills are needed

It disorganizes the whole personality of the affected person, his physical, mental, social and psychological well-being.

O. T. Adigun (2014)

The extent to which the individuals with hearing impairment can successfully confront his/her intra and interpersonal problems and adjust well psychologically to their external environment could be determined by a numbers of factors such as;

severity of his hearing disability, presence or not of additional disability besides hearing loss, gender, type of support he/she receives from home, community and his/her fortitude or resignation to forge on in life (Oyewumi

2000; Ademokoya, 2007 & Isaiah, 2011).

O. T. Adigun (2014)

Introduction cont’d Social Media has provided solace

for persons with or without disability. It provides an important backdrop for the social, emotional, and cognitive development growth accounting for a large proportion of time which may have significant impact on the psychological adjustment of individuals with hearing loss. Psychology adjustment is a behavioral process by which individuals maintain equilibrium among their various needs or between their needs and the obstacles of their environments.

One type of online application of media that has grown rapidly in prevalence and popularity in the recent years among persons with hearing impairment is the social networking on the Internet.

O. T. Adigun (2014)

Introduction Cont’dValentine and Skelton (2009); Oyewumi and

Ibitoye (2013) pointed out that, with the advent of Internet ready mobile phone, the hard of hearing are now able to keep up with the world by reading about current events, explore the numerous sources of information, retains relationships and are able to overcome any prejudices or encountered aversion that may occur in interactions with the general public, giving individuals with hearing impairment the opportunity to create unbiased relationships with their hearing peers. O. T. Adigun (2014)

Introduction Cont’dYouth invest approximately 6.5hrs per day on Social

Networking (Roberts et al., 2005). Jones and Fox, (2009) found that 87% of individuals between the ages of 18 and 32 currently go online regularly, and that 60% of individual in this age group have created a personal profile on a Social Networks.

In 2009, 15.8 percent of time spent on the Internet was on social networking sites and by 2010, the percentage had risen to 22.7 percent (Nielson, 2011).

O. T. Adigun (2014)

Introduction cont’d In the past decade, a number of studies have explored how

Internet use might be related to psychological well-being with mixed results (Kraut, kiesle, Boneva, Cummings, Helgeson & Crawford, 2002; Shaw & Grant, 2002; Vakenburg & Peter, 2007).

On the other hand, research on excessive form of Internet usage has shown that uncontrolled or compulsive Internet use has been known to have negative effects on psychological adjustment of adolescents, such as loneliness (Moody, 2001; Whang, Lee & Chang, 2003), self esteem (Pempek, Yermolayeva & Calvert, 2009) and emotional intelligence (Azuzu, 2008; Youssef & Youssef (2011).

O. T. Adigun (2014)

Statement of the problem

Virtually all adolescents with hearing impairment are now on one or two social networking sites spending much of their valuable time chatting, posting and sharing pictures with online friends with whom they may not have seen physically before. Reports have shown that incessant usage has caused damage to the physical interpersonal relationship with offline friends, disrupt emotion, damaged self esteem and has led many individuals to loneliness. Therefore, the rate at which such social networking sites are being used by adolescents with hearing impairment calls for concern as it affects psychosocial adjustment. Hence, this study will investigate the influence of social networking (SN) on the psychological adjustment of adolescents with hearing impairment in Oyo State, Nigeria.

O. T. Adigun (2014)

Purpose of the study This study will investigate the influence of Social

Networking (SN) on the psychological adjustment of adolescents with hearing impairment in Oyo State. It will also:

examine the reasons adolescents with hearing impairment use SN

highlight the effect of SN on the psychological well-being of adolescents with hearing impairment

find out the relationship between gender and use of SNS among adolescents with hearing impairment.

ascertain the effect of SN on the psychosocial adjustment of adolescents with hearing impairment.

investigate if there is any relationship between SN and emotional intelligence, loneliness and self esteem.

O. T. Adigun (2014)

Research Questions Six (6) research questions were raised for the study

Scope of the study

The study focuses on the influence of Social Networking (SN) on the psychological adjustment of adolescents with hearing impairment. This study involved adolescents with hearing impairment in Oyo State, Nigeria.

O. T. Adigun (2014)

Significance of the study Parents, Adolescents with hearing impairment, Teachers, Governmental agencies, Policy makers and Counselors

Operational definition of terms Social Networking Online friends Offline friends Loneliness Self esteem Emotional intelligence Hearing impairment Interpersonal relationship Intrapersonal relationship

O. T. Adigun (2014)

Review of Related Literatures

Theoretical Review

Empirical Review

Review of Related

Concepts

O. T. Adigun (2014)

Procedure Cont’dTest administration and

procedures Method of data analysis

ProcedurePurposive and random sampling techniques

Instrumentation: Social Networking Scale (r =0.74)

Methodology

Survey research design Population: All adolescents with hearing impairment in

Oyo State

O. T. Adigun (2014)

O. T. Adigun (2014)

Results and Discussion

Fig 1: Social Network Sites used by adolescents with hearing impairment in Oyo state.

The chart revealed that many adolescents with hearing impairment uses more of www.facebook.com, followed by www.whatsapp.com and www.2go.com .

RQ 1: Why does adolescents with hearing impairment use social networking (Social media)?

Table 1 showed that adolescents with hearing impairment uses SNS in order to access information and with the use of social networking sites, sustain relationship, because of affordability, to post pictures online and to avoid boredom (~ =3.00). The finding is consistent with the submissions of Haythornwaite and Kazmer (2002); Donath and boyd (2004); Hindiya and Patchin (2007); Valentine and Skelton (2009); DeAndre et al. (2011) as well as Oyewumi and Ibitoye (2013) who all submitted that young adult use social media to bridge social capital and provide them a unique opportunity to promote socialization.

O. T. Adigun (2014)

RQ 2: Is the a relationship between use of SN and emotional intelligence among adolescents with hearing impairment?

Table 2: Table showing the relationship between social networking and emotional intelligence

The table showed that use of SN has a positive significant relationship with emotional intelligence among adolescents with hearing impairment (r = 0.601, p<0.05). The finding is in consonance with Azuzu (2008); Newness, Steinert and Viswesvaran (2012) but negates the findings of Lane (1992); Bargh and McKenna (2004).

O. T. Adigun (2014)

Variable Mean ( ) Std N df R Sig Remark

Social Networking

22.0714 5.412126 124 0.601 0.00 Sig

Emotional Intelligence

59.5714 7.884

X

RQ 3: Is the a relationship between use of SN and Self esteem among adolescents with hearing impairment?

Table 3: Table showing the relationship between SN and Self esteem

The finding revealed that use of SN has a positive significant relationship with self esteem among adolescents with hearing impairment (r = 0.280, p<0.05). This finding corroborates the results of Ellison, et al. (2007) Gonzale et al. (2011) who found interrelationship between various usage of SNS and self esteem among various categories of adolescent and indifferent locations.

O. T. Adigun (2014)

Variable Mean( )

Std N df R Sig Remark

Social Networking

22.0714

5.412 126 12

40.280

0.01

Sig

Self Esteem

27.6190

4.712

X

RQ4: Is the a relationship between use of SN and Loneliness among adolescents with hearing impairment?

Table 4: Table showing the relationship between SNS and loneliness

Table 4 showed that use of SN has a negative insignificant relationship

with loneliness among adolescents with hearing impairment (r = - 0.150, p>0.05). The findings therefore negates the statements of Moody (2001); Whang, Lee and Chang (2003); Larose and Kim (2008) and LaRose et al. (2010) that excessive internet usage is associated with loneliness among vulnerable the minority populations.

O. T. Adigun (2014)

Variable Mean( )

Std N df R Sig Remark

Social Networking

22.0714 5.412126 124 -0.150 0.94 NS

Loneliness 50.9683 11.009

X

RQ 5: Is there any significant joint relationship between the use of SN and psychological adjustment among adolescents with hearing impairment?Table 5: Table showing a joint relationship between SN

and Psychological adjustment

R= .670a; R Square= .448; Adjusted R Square = .435; Std. Error of the Estimate = 4.06940.

O. T. Adigun (2014)

ModelSum of Squares Df

Mean Square F Sig.

1 Regression1642.030 3 547.343 33.052 .000a

Residual2020.327 122 16.560

Total3662.357 125

Table 5 above shows that there is a significant joint relationship between the use of social networking and psychological adjustment among adolescents with hearing impairment at R = 0.448. 67.0% of the variance account for the use of social networking sites among adolescents with hearing impairment.

This implies that adolescents with hearing impairment may turn to use social networking in order to boost their self esteem, emotions and to avoid being lonely without having anyone to talk or chat with. This finding agrees with the findings of Kraut et al. (2002); Bargh and McKenna (2004); Valkenberg et al. (2006), Ellison et al. (2007); Steinfield, Ellison and Lampe (2008); Kalpidou et al. (2011) as well as Szwedo, Mikami and Allen (2012) who posted that association between online communication and psychological adjustment but it may differ substantially depending on the initial social functioning of young individuals.

O. T. Adigun (2014)

RQ 6: Is there a significant difference in the use of SN among male and female adolescents with hearing impairment?

Table 6: Table of result on the differences between male and female adolescents with hearing impairment in their use of Social Networking

Table 6 revealed the differences between male ( = 22.4265) and female ( = 21.6552) adolescents with hearing impairment in their use of Social Networking and the difference is shown to be insignificant (t = 0.796; df = 124; p>0.05).

O. T. Adigun (2014)

Gender N Mean ( ) Std. Dev df T Sig RemarkMale 68 22.4265 5.22427

124 0.796 0.428 NS

Female 58 21.6552 5.64304

X

X

X

This finding therefore corroborates the findings of Bowe (2002); Abioye (2004); Power and Power (2004); Nathlie (2006); Pilling and Barrett (2007); Sabah (2008); Smith (2011); Kadiri and Muhammed (2011); Oyewumi and Ibitoye (2013) who all posited that irrespective of disabling conditions and gender, young adults have found solace in the social media and the use of such media provide them with emotional and cognitive support, enhanced communication, social connection as well as development of appreciable level of social adjustment. Similarly, the finding of this present study correspond with the findings of Holmes and O’Loughlin (2012) who reported that persons with learning disability use social media to form meaningful relationships. Asuncion et al. (2012) also found no gender bias in the use of social networking among some postsecondary school students with disabilities in Canada.

O. T. Adigun (2014)

Conclusion

The study concluded that there is a significant joint relationship between the use of social Networking and psychological adjustment among adolescents with hearing impairment while gender has no influence on the use of SN among adolescents with hearing impairment.

O. T. Adigun (2014)

RecommendationsCurriculum planners and developers should include social and

emotional intelligence building in the curriculum of students with hearing impairment. As the World shifts into a virtual community, teaching and learning processes should also involve online teaching and interactions. Therefore, strategies must be developed to include self building skills, communication skills and brain tasking activities during online teaching and interactions.

Psychologists, social workers, teachers of students with hearing impairment, parents and other family members should assist adolescents with hearing impairment to meet new people and strike up a conversation between adolescents with hearing impairment and other members of the society.

O. T. Adigun (2014)

Suggestions for further studiesExpand the scope of the psychological constructs used

in this study. The study population to be used in other studies

should be increased and expand in scope across geopolitical zones.

Examine whether or not using SN to interact with friends who are seen often offline might have different implications as compared to interacting with online friends.

More so, further studies could be in form of an experimental and longitudinal study.

O. T. Adigun (2014)

O. T. Adigun (2014)