Value priorities in hearing-impaired adolescents

Hearing impairment is regarded to be a barrier to the psychological development and language skills of deaf students. In understanding and establishing what comprises the value priorities amongst adolescents, certain deviations can be expected amongst teenagers who are deaf or who have hearing impairment. The article describes and compares the value priorities of 246 adolescents who are deaf or with hearing impairment from Poland and the Czech Republic with hearing peers. The Schwartz Portrait Values Questionnaire is used to measure the value priorities of the respective groups of participants. In comparison to peers responses the results indicate that hearing status impacts upon an individuals’ values of conformity, tradition as well as achievement, however, other value priorities are shown to be infl uenced by gender and country of domicile