The Study Of Online Friendship And Group Identity In Adolescents With Hearing Impairments

In reality adolescents with hearing impairments may have difficulties interacting with hearing individuals. Through the Internet they can express their opinions and take part in social activities. The Internet provides a platform for adolescents with hearing impairments to expand their social interactions. Online group interaction is so new a research field that there is no research for adolescents with hearing impairments. The present research aims to explore the impact of Internet use on group interaction in adolescents with hearing impairments. It is possible that online group interaction is different from offline group interaction for adolescents with hearing impairments.Two key elements of group interaction through the Internet are online friendship and online group identity. The former concerns one-to-one interaction whereas the latter concerns one-to-many interaction. The theories of friendship and group identity are applied to studying online group interaction. Theoretically, findings from this research will contribute to the application, validation, and improvement of existing theories. Practically, this research will contribute to evidence-based innovation of Internet technology that can facilitate the involvement of adolescents with hearing impairments in social activities in real life.This research consists of three sections. The first section concerns the characteristics of online friendship of adolescents with hearing impairments, including current status of online friendship, perceptions of Internet functions, and online friendship quality. Current status of online friendship contains the number of online friends, the characteristics of online friends, groups of online friends, and the positiveness of friends making. Perceptions of Internet functions are examined in terms of friend-making convenience, information collection, emotional support, online integrity, and self-identification. Friendship quality (online and offline) is measured along seven dimensions:interdependence, breath of interaction, depth of interaction, code change, understanding of predictions, commitment, and relationship convergence. The second section concerns the theories of group and group identity and provides a first-step analysis of offline group identity and online group identity. The three-factor and the four-factor models are discussed, and a variety of measurements of group identity are reviewed. The third section reports a series of confirmative studies about offline versus online group identity of adolescents with hearing impairments. The effect of offline group identity on self-identity and the relations among the four dimensions of group identity (emotional involvement, experience commitment, group cognition, and group self-esteem) are examined.This research adopts a multi-method approach. Park’s Friendship Quality Questionnaire is revised and used to measure online and offline friendship quality along seven dimensions. Adolescents Group Identity Questionnaire developed by An is administrated to measure offline group identity, and the reliability and validity of the questionnaire are assessed. The revised version of this questionnaire is developed, and is then used to measure online and offline group identity at the same time. In addition, The Friendship Quality Questionnaires and the Adolescents Group Identity Questionnaire (revised) are administrated to hearing adolescents. Data from the adolescents with hearing impairments and from the hearing adolescents are then compared. Content analysis is used to analyze the message records from Internet chats of adolescents with hearing impairments. Interviews and surveys are applied to examine online friendship of adolescents with hearing impairments and how they perceive Internet safety.The results indicate that:(1) Adolescents with hearing impairments interact with offline friends through the Internet. They prefer instant communication tools, and take a more passive role in interactions. They do not perceive online interactions to be safe enough. For them the function of online friendship is to get information instead of emotional support; (2) For adolescents with hearing impairments, the quality of their online friendship is lower than that of their offline friendship, and is lower than that of the online friendship of hearing adolescents. Gender plays an important role in online friendship quality of adolescents with hearing impairments, in that boys score higher on interdependence, depth of interaction, and relationship convergence than girls; (3) Adolescents with hearing impairments score lower on both online and offline group identity than adolescents with normal hearing. There is no difference between online group identity and offline group identity in adolescents with hearing impairments. The four dimensions of online group identity are highly correlated with each other. Group behavior can be predicted by group self-esteem, experience commitment, and group cognition. Group cohesion is also an important factor contributing to online group identity.In summary, the Internet influences the friendship of adolescents with hearing impairments, but has no significant effect on their group identity. Several suggestions are made on the basis of these findings, for example, encouraging adolescents with hearing impairments to first establish friendship with hearing adolescents offline and then expand their social interactions through the Internet, and providing training to adolescents with hearing impairments to improve their social skills and to enhance their awareness of online safety issues.To conclude, the present research has important practical implications and provides a timely entry into studying the impact of the Internet on group interaction in adolescents with hearing impairments. It is the first attempt to combine cross-disciplinary results to study this issue, and will make novel contributions to understanding the possible mechanisms underlying online group interaction in adolescents with hearing impairments. Limitations of the present study and future paths for research are also discussed.