Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education Health-Related Quality of Life and Classroom Participation of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students in General Schools

A group of deaf and hard-of-hearing (D/HH) students at mainstream schools (N 5 212) was investigated in a ques-tionnaire-based survey using the Inventory of Life Quality of Children and Youth (ILC) and the Classroom Participa-tion Questionnaire. The ILC data for the D/HH sample are for the most part comparable with the data from a nor-mative hearing sample. Item-total correlations showed that the domains of school and social activities with peers were more important for the Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) of the D/HH students than for that of the hear-ing students. The results also reveal differences in the HRQoL levels of the two samples, with the D/HH sample having higher scores for school experiences, physical and mental health, and overall HRQoL, though the effect sizes for the differences are small to moderate. Specific charac