Effects of Speech and Language Therapists’ Personality Traits and Cognitive Emotion Regulation on the Perceptual Evaluation of Dysphonia

Abstract

As in many healthcare fields, it is essential to establish clinical standards for voice assessments; however, some individual characteristics of clinicians, such as their personalities, may affect assessment reliability. Therefore, this study aims to examine the relationship between the personality traits and cognitive emotion regulation strategies of speech-language therapists (SLTs) and their GRBAS (Grade, Roughness, Breathiness, Asthenia, Strain) scoring. The study group comprised 33 SLTs and 9 women with dysphonia. The Five-Factor Personality Inventory (FFPI) and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) were used to assess SLTs' psychological traits. The SLTs evaluated the acoustic recordings of sustained vowel phonation /a/ obtained from individuals with dysphonia, using the GRBAS scale. Cronbach's alpha was used to assess inter-rater reliability, and Spearman's correlation analysis was used to analyze the relationships among the variables. The findings revealed that the FFPI dimensions were weakly and significantly related to Grade (G) and Strain (S). In the maladaptive dimensions, with an increase in the scores of the neuroticism dimension of FPPI and the catastrophizing dimension of CERQ, the SLTs gave significantly higher scores to Grade (G). In addition, with an increase in the score of rumination or focus on thought, the SLTs perceived Strain (S) more negatively. Consistent with these findings, in the adaptive dimensions, the SLTs gave higher scores to Grade (G) as the positive refocusing and positive reappraisal scores decreased. The findings of this study showed that, as some maladaptive aspects of personality and cognitive emotion regulation increased and adaptive aspects decreased, the SLTs' perceptions of Grade (G) and Strain (S) became more negative. Additionally, these results suggested the possibility of advanced confounding variables beyond primary factors, such as training and experience in the perceptual voice assessment of the SLTs, and the importance of standardizing professional practices, such as the observation and supervision of experts.