Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects on mental health of coping strategies in older adults with hearing loss. Subjects were 193 older adults with hearing loss, who had came to hearing aid fitting shops or medical institution for a consultation. Firstly, we developed a 15-item coping scale composed of three subscales (problem-oriented coping, emotional-oriented coping and avoidance coping) and evaluated its construct validity using a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The CFA result provided an acceptable indices and supported construct validity of the scale. Secondly, we conducted a path analysis to test a model incorporating the above mentioned three coping strategies as predictors of the mental health. The result demonstrated that more emotional-oriented coping strategy deteriorated, rather than improved, mental health, while problem-oriented and avoidance coping were not related to mental health. Based on the findings, the authors discuss a direction of further study on coping to maintain and promote mental health of older adults with hearing loss.
