Self-Concept of Deaf Secondary School Students in Different Educational Settings

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of different educational settings on the self-concept of deaf secondary school students. The Self-Description Questionnaire-1 (Marsh, 1986), a multidimensional measure, was linguistically modified and sign language videos were produced for those using sign communication. In the main study, the participants were deaf secondary students from three school settings: segregated (institutional), congregated (a new facility housing the previously segregated school for the deaf and a hearing secondary school), resource programs (in mainstream schools, providing both special class instruction and opportunities for integration). Examining dimensions of self-concept, the results identified academic advantages in attending resource programs and social advantages in attending segregated settings. Overall, deaf students who were integrated with hearing students had better self-perceptions of reading ability than those in special classes. Additional analyses with subsamples of deaf students found no significant differences between those using spoken and sign communication in any dimension of self-concept.