Preference for sources of counselling among parents of children with hearing impairments in Zimbabwe

Abstract

This article explores whether or not the gender of parents of children with hearing impairments has a part to play in their preference for sources of counseling. Discussions on sources of counseling and implications for counselors and the counseling field are provided. Out of a population of all parents of identified school going age children with hearing impairments in Zimbabwe, a sample of two hundred and seventy parents was obtained through simple random sampling procedure to take part in the study. Parents of children with hearing impairments participated in this exploratory study by completing questionnaires indicating their preferences for sources of counseling according to their (parents) gender. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data through the use of chi-square tests. When the first group of sources of counseling were grouped as follows; (a) special schools, (b) counseling organizations, churches and hospitals (c) relatives, individuals and friends, results indicate a fairly strong association between first source of counseling information and gender of parents. When source (a) was eliminated results indicate a moderate association between source (b) of counseling information and the gender of the participants in the study. With (a) and (b) eliminated results indicate a fairly strong relationship between gender and the third source of counseling information. If these results are found to be stable in future research, clients can be classified and referred to the most appropriate sources of counseling.