A preliminary study of self-esteem, stigma, and disclosure in adolescents who stutter

A speech and psychological profile of treatment-seeking adolescents who stutter

“…Blood and Blood (2004) also found evidence of a significantly heightened risk for experiencing bullying among 53 adolescents who stutter when compared to 53 non-stuttering controls. The majority of adolescents who stutter reported positive self-esteem, which corresponds with previous evidence of positive self-esteem among the majority of a sample of 48 adolescents who stutter (Blood, Blood, Tellis, & Gabel, 2003). However, in Blood and Blood's (2004) study, participants with low self-esteem and poor communication competence were more likely to report experiences of bullying.…”

“…However, high social desirability scores were found for boys (n = 41), but not girls (n = 9). These findings regarding socially desirable responding may be related to evidence that adolescents who stutter are reticent to disclose their personal experiences of stuttering (Blood et al, 2003;Erickson & Block, 2013). For instance, Blood and colleagues (2003) found that 60% of their sample of adolescents who stutter -rarely‖ or -never‖ discussed their stuttering.…”

“…Across the adolescent literature, there are some indications that stuttering severity and age may influence psychological functioning. First, a small number of studies have grouped adolescents who stutter into younger and older age groups, in order to determine whether the negative psychosocial impact of stuttering changes with age (Blood et al, 2003;Gunn et al, 2014). For instance, Blood and colleagues (2003) found that younger adolescents (13-15 years) perceived stuttering as more negative and stigmatizing than older adolescents (16-18 years), and older adolescents were PROFILE OF ADOLESCENTS WHO STUTTER 13 found to be more open about disclosing their stuttering than younger adolescents.…”

“…Based on evidence that older adolescents may report more negative psychological outcomes than younger adolescents (Blood et al, 2003;Gunn et al, 2014), adolescents in the present study were divided into younger and older age groups, with the following aims:…”

“…This finding corresponds with previous evidence of socially desirable responding among adolescents who stutter (Gunn et al, 2014;Messenger et al 2015), and suggest that adolescents who stutter may PROFILE OF ADOLESCENTS WHO STUTTER 29 refrain from providing an honest account of symptoms relating to anxiety. This may be partly explained by evidence of reticence among adolescents who stutter to disclose personal experiences of stuttering (Blood et al, 2003;Erickson & Block, 2013). Further research is required to determine whether this reticence is also related to reports of anxiety symptoms, and to understand why adolescents who stutter are inclined to hide their true experiences and/or feelings.…”