"At home, I never felt included, I always felt on the outside": Deaf peoples' perspectives on how inadequate access to childhood communication influences mental health outcomes.

BACKGROUND

The prevalence of adverse mental health outcomes experienced by deaf adults - members of deaf communities connected through a shared sign language and culture is greater than that faced by their hearing counterparts. In addition to everyday life stressors, deaf people can experience further communication related stressors. For this group, early life communication and language deprivation is a significant contributing factor to subsequent adverse mental health outcomes. This study aimed to understand how deaf people viewed the impact of inadequate access to early life communication on their mental health across their life.

METHODS

One-on-one semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 16 deaf Australian adults who identified as having mental health challenges. Interviews were conducted in Auslan and inductively coded using thematic analysis.

RESULTS

Participants attributed various forms of mental ill-health to interactions with people who could not sign, particularly within the family and school environments. Proximal stressors such as language dissonance, identity confusion, cross-cultural code-switching, and distrust were identified by participants. Distal stressors included three themes: bullying, exclusion, and marginalisation and ostracism. These stressors were perceived to be linked to experiences of mental ill health including periods of exhaustion, anger, anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation.

CONCLUSIONS

The study highlights deaf Australians' perceived negative impacts from proximal and distal communication-related stressors during childhood on mental health outcomes. Addressing communication barriers in childhood through the implementation of interventions and support strategies may help to avoid adverse mental health outcomes for deaf adults.