Short-Form Video Addiction of Students with Hearing Impairments: The Roles of Demographics, Parental Psychological Control, and Psychological Reactance.
Tight parental control fuels TikTok addiction in hearing-impaired students when kids push back.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Zhengli et al. (2025) gave a one-time survey to Chinese students with hearing loss.
They asked about short-video use, parental control, and psychological reactance.
Kids answered questions like "My parents decide everything I do" and "I hate being told what to do."
What they found
Younger day-students and primary-school kids reported less video addiction.
Older boarders scored higher when parents used tight control and kids pushed back.
Parental control and child reactance were linked to heavier TikTok-type use.
How this fits with other research
Njardvik et al. (1999) found one in five autistic clients also have hearing issues.
Both papers flag sensory-linked risks, so screen habits may hide undetected hearing stress.
Bailey et al. (2010) surveyed disabled teens and showed chronic disease raises behavior problems.
Zhengli’s team adds screen over-use to that risk list for hearing-impaired students.
Why it matters
Check both hearing status and screen logs during intake. If parents report strict rules and the child argues every point, teach negotiation skills and set joint screen limits. Lower reactance often means lower use.
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Ask the student to set their own daily video limit, then shape it down 10 % each day.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
PURPOSE: Due to limited auditory capabilities, students with hearing impairments rely more on visual stimuli, making short-form videos a key information source and potential addiction risk. However, research on this topic is exceedingly scarce. This study aimed to investigate the demographic characteristics of short-form video addiction among students with hearing impairments and the roles of parental psychological control and students' psychological reactance in short-form video addiction. METHODS: A total of 335 students with hearing impairments from China participated in this survey. Canonical correlation analysis and structural equation modeling were performed to analyze the data. RESULTS: Primary school students, day students, and those under the age of 13 exhibited significantly lower levels of short-form video addiction. Parental psychological control was positively associated with hearing-impaired students' short-form video addiction, and their correlation was mainly manifested in the correlation between guilt induction (one dimension of parental psychological control) and productivity loss (one dimension of short-form video addiction). Additionally, psychological reactance partially mediated the effect of parental psychological control on short-form video addiction. CONCLUSION: Hearing-impaired students' short-form video addiction varies across their demographics. Parental psychological control is a risk factor for short-form video addiction among students with hearing impairments, and this relationship is partially mediated by students' psychological reactance. This study offers implications for reducing short-form video addiction from the perspectives of family, school, and society.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2025 · doi:10.1089/cyber.2017.0503