Behavior problems in children with cochlear implants
2.1. Participants
Sixty Mandarin-speaking patients (25 boys and 35 girls) with
CIs who met the following criteria participated in this study: (1)
the subjects aged 6–18 years; (2) the subjects did not have
developmental/neurological difficulties; (3) the subjects went to
mainstream schools; (4) the subjects used oral communication;(5)
the subjects returned all the questionnaires. They aged
12.2 3.2 years (range = 6.9–18.1 years) at the time of the study.
They received CIs at the mean age of 4.0 2.5 years (range = 1.1–14.4
years)in our center during years 2000–2011 and had used the CIs for a
mean duration of 8.2 3.3 years (range = 2.2–13.3 years).
A demographical information form was filled out by the parent
of the participants, in which the parents’ education background
and occupational status were asked to derive their socioeconomic
status (SES) based on the Hollingshead two-factor index of social
status [20]. The index has been widely used in many studies that
require the measurement of SES [19,21,22]. A five-level item was
used to rate parent educational level (1 = parents who were
illiterate; 5 = parents who graduated from graduate school) and
occupational status (1 = unskilled workers; 5 = professionals).
Computed from the educational and occupational levels (weighted
by 4 and 7, respectively), the SES was obtained using a five-point
scale (1 = lowest; 5 = highest).
The behavioral outcomes of the participants were compared to
an age-matched normal-hearing normative sample provided by
the test developer of the Chinese-version CBCL [23].
All informed consents signed by participants, their guardians
and their schoolteachers were obtained before the test procedures.
The study protocol was approved by the Institutional Review
Board, Chang-Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
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