Fathers of Young Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing Children: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Much of the literature exploring the role of parents of children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) has focused on mothers; yet, the involvement and perspectives of fathers is valuable and warrants attention. Following the PRISMA guidelines, this systematic literature review examined the peer-reviewed research that has differentially explored the experiences of fathers and mothers of young DHH children. Utilizing three databases (Web of Science, PsychINFO, Scopus) and spanning 50 years (1969–2019), 457 non-duplicated articles were identified that included the fathers of DHH children, birth to six years. Independent review of the titles, abstracts, and keywords by the authors limited these to 119. Full manuscripts were assessed for eligibility; 37 were deemed appropriate for inclusion in this systematic review. The papers included have been organized into the following themes: perspectives on parenting, parental stress and coping, parent-child interaction, involvement in early intervention, parental self-efficacy, and benefits of fathers’ inclusion. Recommendations for future research include: (a) actively recruiting fathers in research, (b) differentially analyzing fathers’ and mothers’ experiences in research studies, (c) using information gleaned from research regarding father-child and mother-child interactions to guide interventions/programming, (d) recognizing the bidirectional influences of fathers and their DHH children, (e) moving beyond descriptive studies to explore fathers' influences on child outcomes, and (f) recognizing diverse family constellations.

Family-Centered Early Intervention (FCEI) Involving Fathers and Mothers of Children Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing: Parental Involvement and Self-Efficacy

“…Although FCEI for children who are DHH aims to support caregivers in promoting their child's development by addressing the needs of the whole family, the focus of research with this population was centered, to a large extent, on mothers [13]. Less is known about the experiences of fathers, such as the facilitators and barriers to promoting their involvement in EI and their beliefs about their PSE in their role as fathers.…”

“…In a literature review on the perceptions and experiences of parents of DHH children of 0-6 years of age, which spanned 50 years of research, just 37 studies were identified that explicitly included fathers [13]. The body of research that includes fathers of young DHH children can generally be classified into six themes: (1) fathers' perspectives on parenting;…”

Assessing parent interaction with deaf infants: A quantitative survey of UK professional practice

“…Gender differences have been found between hearing parents use of spoken language with deaf children (Löfkvist et al., 2022), and there are also differences between hearing and deaf fathers in the amount of visual–tactile interaction strategies and wait‐time they use to gain their child's attention (Loots & Devisé, 2003) and between the number of turns taken by deaf mothers and deaf fathers when interacting with their deaf children (Wille et al., 2019). As recommended by Szarkowski and Dirks (2021), future work should focus on both parents, the mother–father–child triad, or indeed other parent–parent–child dynamics.…”

Multidimensional Family-Centred Early Intervention in Children with Hearing Loss: A Conceptual Model

“…Interestingly, lower self-efficacy was reported for parents of children with hearing aids, as compared to parents of children who utilise cochlear implants, which might be related to the amount of support received [ 123 ]. Recently, higher levels of self-efficacy, related to higher levels of involvement in family-centred early intervention and higher levels of received support, were reported, specifically, for fathers of children with HL [ 124 , 125 ]. In accordance, the best practice guideline on family-centred early intervention, for children who are deaf or hard of hearing, emphasises FCEI’s role to promote family well-being (e.g., enjoyment of the child, optimism about the child’s future, emotional availability) and self-efficacy (i.e., the families’ competence and confidence in parenting and promoting the child’s development).…”