Coping with the stress of congenital visual impairment

Objective: To explore the different coping strategies used by congenitally visually impaired young adults to cope with the burden of disability. Methodology: An open-ended interview technique was used to gather item pool from 35 visually impaired individuals (20 men and 15 women) with age range 18 to 26 years (mean=21.29±2.65). A list of 25 items were further validated by experts and piloted on 10 participants (5 men and 5 women). Lastly, a sample of 426 (62% men and 38% women) visually impaired young adults aged 16-28 years were tested for psychometric properties of Coping Strategies Scale for Visually Impaired (CSS-VI) along with Depression Anxiety Stress Scale. Results: Factor Analysis generated three factors of CSS-VI, emotion venting, active problem solving and support seeking strategies. The CSS-VI was found to have good internal consistency, and discriminant validity. Conclusion: The results suggest that individuals with congenital VI use more positive coping to curtail the stress associated with their dysfunction.