© 2018 IJNR |Published by Innovational Publishers International Journal of Nursing Research (IJNR) International Peer Reviewed Journal Abstract Aim: The study aimed to evaluate the relationship between speech intelligibility and mental health and self-esteem of adolescents with hearing impairment. Materials and methods: The study sample comprised of 105 adolescents with hearing impairment, studying in selected special schools of Karnataka. The study employed a convenient sampling technique. The speech intelligibility was assessed by two naive listeners decoding adolescents as they pronounce twenty different digits from 0-99 and counting the percentage of a number of words correctly decoded by them. The self-esteem of hearing impaired adolescents was assessed by using a structured self-esteem rating scale, which was developed by the researcher. The mental health was assessed by using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire developed by Robert Goodman in 1998. Results: There was no significant relationship between the speech intelligibility and mental health of adolescents with hearing impairment (ρ= 0.04). There was no significant correlation between the speech intelligibility and self-esteem of adolescents with hearing impairment (ρ=0.0391, p= -0.09). There was a significant association between mental health and type of school (z= - 6.34, „p'=0.000). There was a significant association between self-esteem and intensity of hearing loss (z = 6.94, „p‟=0.031). Conclusion: Although almost half of the adolescents had abnormal mental health, there was no significant relationship between speech intelligibility and mental health and self-esteem of adolescents with hearing impairment. Most surprisingly, the majority of the adolescents had good self-esteem. Regular schooling and interaction with peers could be the contributing factor to higher self-esteem. Keywords: speech intelligibility, mental health, self-esteem, adolescents, hearing impairment. *Corresponding author: Besi Paul, Assistant Professor, Department of Mental Health Nursing, Carmel College of Nursing, Aluva, Kerala, India. Email Id- besipaul87@gmail.com 1. Introduction There are different ways in which hearing loss affects adolescents. The four main effects include delay in the development of receptive and expressive communication skills (speech and language), the language deficit causes Access this article online Website:www.innovationalpublishers.com/journal/ijnr e-ISSN: 2456-1320 DOI: How to cite this article: Besi Paul, Tessy Treesa Jose, Linu Sara George, Cebi Paul, Speech intelligibility and its influence on mental health and self-esteem of adolescents with hearing impairment. Int J Nur Res. 2018; 4(3): 134-138. learning problems that result in reduced academic achievements, communication difficulties often lead to social isolation and poor self-concept. Language skills of deaf children also determine their career aspirations and evaluations of their occupational competency. [1] Many adolescents with hearing loss do not use their speech because of the fear that they will fail to communicate. Some others may use their speech but give up when they are not understood. [2] This will make them more or less withdrawn to themselves, reducing their social interaction. Social deprivation and communication being an important cause for mental health problems in adolescents with hearing impairment are of increasing interest for psychiatry. The relationship between language skills and This is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. Research article Speech intelligibility and its influence on mental health and self- esteem of adolescents with hearing impairment Besi Paul 1 , Tessy Treesa Jose 2 , Linu Sara George 3 , Cebi Paul 4 1 Department of Mental Health Nursing, Carmel College of Nursing, Aluva, Kerala, India 2,3 Department of Mental Health Nursing, Manipal College of Nursing, Manipal, Karnataka, India 4 Department of Mental Health Nursing, MOSC College of Nursing, Kolencheri, Kerala, India