The Relationship between Hearing Impairment, Workplace Stress, and Coping Mechanisms

This study explores the connection between hearing impairment, workplace (social, performance, and employer) stressors, and self-efficacy beliefs. The aim was to compute the statistical significance, direction, and strength between specific stressors and self-efficacy beliefs to see how individuals manage workplace stress overall. In addition, the literature review and a qualitative analysis of open-ended responses from six participants were examined to determine effective coping mechanisms. Descriptive quantitative analysis, frequency charts, t-tests, correlational matrices, and ANOVAs were used to calculate relationships between demographics, stress, and self-efficacy ratings. The results show that self-efficacy and stress are negatively correlated and that self-efficacy and coping techniques are positively correlated. In addition, positive work experiences are correlated with lower stress and higher self-efficacy. Amongst workplace stressors, social stress outranks performance and employer stressors. The opposite trend shows in workplace self-efficacy where performance and employer self-efficacy beliefs are greater than social self-efficacy. Hearing loss level and communication style (e.g., speech, lip reading, sign language) were two important demographic factors in determining stress and self-efficacy levels. Effective coping mechanisms that participants reported included mindfulness, and breaks, whereas ineffective coping included avoidance coping.