Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine temperament dimensions, executive functioning ability, and anxiety levels in school-age children who stutter and their non-stuttering peers. Participants were 100 Portuguese children aged 7 to 12 years (M = 9.13; SD = 1.70), including 50 children who stutter and 50 children who do not stutter. Analyses, which were performed separately for younger and older participants, sought to identify correlations between key variables. Temperament was evaluated through a parent questionnaire, executive functioning was evaluated through children’s responses on a performance test, and anxiety level was assessed through a self-perception scale. On the temperament measure, comparisons between children who stutter and their non-stuttering peers revealed that older children who stutter exhibited significantly higher scores on the Anger/Frustration, Impulsivity, and Sadness subscales, and lower averages on the Attention/Focusing, Perceptual sensitivity, and Soothability/Falling Reactivity subscales. On the executive functioning task, comparisons revealed that the group of younger children who stutter exhibited significantly higher average execution times than their non-stuttering peers. There were no statistically significant differences in anxiety between children who stutter and children who do not stutter, and there were no statistically significant correlations between temperament factors and measures of executive functioning. Children who stutter experienced lower ability to orient attention and greater emotional reactivity compared with their non-stuttering peers. Significant correlations were found between executive functioning and age and among the temperament factors themselves. These results, which support the need for a multidimensional view of stuttering, were interpreted in the context of the Dual Diathesis – Stressor model. Findings indicate that temperament and executive functioning abilities may contribute to the development of stuttering.
Highlights
TemperamentTemperament is an overarching term for a collection of traits that are assumed to be biologically determined and related to individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation (Rothbart et al, 2000; Jones et al, 2014).Temperament, Executive Functioning, and Anxiety in StutteringTemperament can develop over time (Goldsmith et al, 1987) and be influenced by environmental interactions (Eggers et al, 2010)
Executive Functioning Group comparisons of the CCTT1 and the CCTT2 revealed that children who stutter exhibited significantly higher scores for execution time (CCTT1: t(48.75) = 3.144, p = 0.003; CCTT2: t(52.27) = 3.753, p < 0.001), as well as number of failures (CCTT1: t(38.23) = 2.627, p = 0.012), number of warnings (CCTT1: t(52.47) = 2.968, p = 0.005; CCTT2: t(53.71) = 3.757, p < 0.001), number of sequencing errors (CCTT2: t(34.99) = 3.337, p = 0.002), and color sequencing errors (CCTT2: t(49.31) = 2.416, p = 0.020) (Table 4)
Executive Functioning No statistically significant differences were found between groups of children who stutter and their non-stuttering peers (p > 0.05) for any of the variables of executive functioning (EF), including: (1) CCTT1 execution time, (2) CCTT1 number of sequencing errors, (3) CCTT1 number of failures, (4) CCTT1 number of warnings, (5) CCTT2 execution time, (6) CCTT2 number of color sequencing errors, TABLE 4 | Mean (M), standard deviations (SD) and p-values for the temperament, EF and anxiety performance tasks for group of younger children who stutter (n = 31; sex: M = 25; F = 6) and who do not stutter (n = 31; sex: M = 15; F = 16)
Summary
TemperamentTemperament is an overarching term for a collection of traits that are assumed to be biologically determined and related to individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation (Rothbart et al, 2000; Jones et al, 2014).Temperament, Executive Functioning, and Anxiety in StutteringTemperament can develop over time (Goldsmith et al, 1987) and be influenced by environmental interactions (Eggers et al, 2010). Temperament is an overarching term for a collection of traits that are assumed to be biologically determined and related to individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation (Rothbart et al, 2000; Jones et al, 2014). Children’s and adults’ intrinsic motivations and abilities for a specific behavior can be mediated by aspects of their temperament, such as their activity level, their adaptability, and their persistence (Goldsmith et al, 1987). Some authors have connected temperament differences in children who stutter with their susceptibility to begin, continue, or recover from stuttering (Conture, 2001; Guitar, 2014; Ambrose et al, 2015). Studies have suggested that children with a sensitive temperament may have neural vulnerabilities that cause them to be more likely to develop stuttering (Guitar, 2014)
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