Temperament and the Impact of Stuttering in Children Aged 8–14 Years

Abstract

Purpose The goal of this study was to evaluate possible associations between child- and mother-reported temperament, stuttering severity, and child-reported impact of stuttering in school-age children who stutter. Method Participants were 123 children who stutter (94 boys and 29 girls) who were between 9;0 and 14;10 (years;months) and their mothers. Temperament was assessed with the revised child and parent version of the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire–Revised ( Ellis & Rothbart, 2001 ). The Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering (Yaruss & Quesal, 2006) was used to evaluate the stuttering impact. Results Child- and mother-reported Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire–Revised temperament factors correlated moderately. No statistically significant associations were found between temperament and stuttering severity. The temperament factors of Surgency (both child- and mother-reported) and Negative Affect (only child-reported) correlated moderately with the Overall Impact and several subsections (i.e., Speaker's Reactions, Daily Communication, and/or Quality of Life) of the Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering. Conclusions More extraverted and less fearful/shy children experience a lower overall impact of their stuttering. Children with higher levels of irritability and frustration experience a higher overall impact of their stuttering. Since children's ratings of temperament were more sensitive to these associations than mothers, this study supports the inclusion of child-reported temperament questionnaires in future research.

Developmental Factors That Predict Head Movement During Resting-State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging in 3–7-Year-Old Stuttering and Non-stuttering Children

“…The present findings do not support significant differences between CWS and controls on temperament scores as measured by the CBQ. While previous research reported differences between CWS and their control peers on various tasks or instruments that measure temperament (for a review, see Conture et al, 2013 ), other studies have failed to find differences between these groups ( Reilly et al, 2013 ; Kefalianos et al, 2017 ; Walsh et al, 2019 ; Eggers et al, 2021 ). It is important to note that the studies of temperament in CWS vary greatly in their methods of sampling (e.g., the children recruited through a clinic vs. from a community sample), age range, and as pointed out by Alm (2014) , sample sizes as well as the specific test to measure temperamental differences.…”

The role of temperament in stuttering frequency and impact in children under 7

“…Research investigating the possible association between temperament and impact of stuttering is sparse, with a small number of studies that have been carried out reporting associations in adolescents and adults who stutter (Bleek et al, 2012;Lucey et al, 2019;Stipdonk et al, 2014) and school-age CWS (Eggers et al, 2021). Eggers et al (2021) investigated the relationship between temperament and stuttering impact using parent-and self-report questionnaires in a UK clinical cohort of school aged CWS (N = 123; aged 9;00 − 14;10 years).…”

“…Research investigating the possible association between temperament and impact of stuttering is sparse, with a small number of studies that have been carried out reporting associations in adolescents and adults who stutter (Bleek et al, 2012;Lucey et al, 2019;Stipdonk et al, 2014) and school-age CWS (Eggers et al, 2021). Eggers et al (2021) investigated the relationship between temperament and stuttering impact using parent-and self-report questionnaires in a UK clinical cohort of school aged CWS (N = 123; aged 9;00 − 14;10 years). Findings indicated that an increased impact of stuttering, measured by the Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering (Yaruss & Quesal, 2016) was associated with higher negative reactivity (from parent-and self-report measures) and lower positive reactivity (self-report only), as measured using the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire-Revised (Ellis & Rothbart, 2001).…”

“…Given that temperament is considered to be innate, it is possible that the significant associations between temperament and impact reported by Eggers et al (2021) may be present in the preschool years. Investigating the relationship between temperament and stuttering impact in young CWS has the potential to further explain the origins of stuttering impact in this population.…”

“…It was hypothesised that young CWS who are more negatively reactive (Negative Affect) would experience a greater impact of stuttering, on the basis that those who score high in negative reactivity are more likely to show anger, frustration and be upset, and would therefore be more likely to negatively evaluate their speech (Eggers et al, 2021;Jones et al, 2014a). In part, the findings supported that expectation, with higher scores on negative reactivity found to be significantly associated with an increased impact of stuttering on the young child, as judged by parents.…”