Relationships between dyslexic identity, learned helplessness and coping of adolescents with dyslexia: An exploratory study in Hong Kong context

This study investigated the dyslexic identity, learned helplessness and coping strategies and of adolescents with dyslexia in Hong Kong. Given that 10% of the population will have from different levels of dyslexia, studies about adolescents with dyslexia are relatively scarce in Hong Kong. This study was conducted by mixed-methods, which first drew on the data from quantitative methods and then were triangulated with the data from the qualitative study. Two scales were adopted to find out the condition of dyslexic identity, learned helplessness and styles of coping of adolescents with dyslexia. This study chose students with dyslexia from 10 schools to complete the scale. After they had finished the scales, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 7 students or above from 10 schools. Through questionnaires and interviews, it was intended to find out the relationships between dyslexic identity, learned helplessness and coping strategies of them. The result of this study illustrated the phenomenon that adolescents with dyslexia are struggling to face the effect under the effect of learned helplessness which was related their learning difficulties. This study also revealed that the coping strategies of problem-focused, reference to others used by adolescents with dyslexia were significantly related to their dyslexic identity. At the same time, non-productive coping strategies were significantly related to learned helplessness, their performance, coping strategies and learned helplessness, and will attribute to their dyslexic identity. These findings corroborate current research that coping strategies and dyslexic identity are worth to investigate in further study. All rights reserved.