Pediatric hearing impairment caregiver experience: impact of duration of hearing loss on parental stress.

Objectives: Caregivers of children who are deaf/hard of hearing have been reported to have greater stress than caregivers of children with normal hearing. The time of diagnosis is a particularly stressful time and stress levels may change over time based on varying needs at different life events. Thus, we hypothesized that stress experienced by caregivers evolves over time and is impacted by the duration since the diagnosis of hearing loss.

Methods: The 68-item pediatric hearing impairment caregiver experience (PHICE) is a validated questionnaire used to measure stress. The PHICE was administered to 152 caregivers of children with permanent hearing loss. Domain scores were converted into z-scores for analysis of trends of stress over time.

Results: Parents of children whose hearing loss was identified more than 60 months ago reported higher stress levels regarding educational aspects of their child's needs as compared to parents of children with less than 24 months or 24-60 months duration since diagnosis. Parents of children diagnosed with hearing loss within the preceding 24 months reported higher stress levels in the area of healthcare than parents of children diagnosed greater than 24 months ago.

Conclusions: Parental stressors change over time with respect to the time of diagnosis of hearing impairment. This phenomenon was observed irrespective of the age of diagnosis of hearing loss. As professionals serving families of children with hearing loss, we should be aware of changing stressors over time and identify the appropriate support services for families to meet those changing needs. By addressing those evolving stressors, the families' ability to support and improve the outcomes for their children who are deaf or hard of hearing may be enhanced.