Effectiveness of Group Training of Assertiveness on Social Anxiety among Deaf and Hard of Hearing Adolescents

The present study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of assertiveness group training on social anxiety (SAD) between deaf and hearing impaired adolescents. Forty eight (24 deaf and 24 hearing impaired) people participated in this study. First, participants with SAD, i.e. attaining the scores above 40 for Connor's Social Inventory Scale 2000 (SPIN), were selected according to convenience sampling and randomly assigned to two groups, i.e. intervention and control. Then, assertiveness group training was conducted for intervention group within 10 sessions, and immediately after completion of the training sessions, SPIN was re-administered to the two groups. ANCOVA showed that the effectiveness of assertiveness group training on SAD is different between deaf and hearing impaired participants, i.e. assertiveness group training was effective on improvement of SAD in hearing impaired participants but not deaf ones. Therefore, it is recommended to incorporate assertiveness group training in the educational programs developed for adolescents with ear disorders especially hearing impairment.