Conceptualizing other-resilience: exploring how hearing parents enact resilience for themselves and their children who use cochlear implants

Abstract

After an infant hearing loss (HL) diagnosis, parents face a multitude of stressors as they try to make the best decisions for their children. For many parents with typical hearing, opting for cochlear implantation is part of the decision-making process. Findings from a sample of hearing parents who chose cochlear implantation for their children with HL reveal that they experience (a) five resilience triggers, (b) five resilience processes, and (c) multiple relationships between the triggers and processes. In this study, we also advance the communication theory of resilience to illustrate four ways parents enact resilience on behalf of their children and formalize a heuristic we call other resilience. By examining the resilience between and across the resilience triggers, parent processes, and children processes, we provide practical applications for clinicians, families, and networks.