The Association Between Disfluencies and Secondaries in Adolescents with Stuttering

Past studies exploring the relationship between anxiety and stuttering have led to conflicting findings. The purpose of this proposed study is to examine the association between anxiety and stuttering behaviors in adolescents with moderate to severe developmental stuttering. Twenty adolescents (12-14 years) and twenty adolescents (15- 17 years) will be recruited for this study. Participants will complete a self-report to rate situations that range from least to most anxiety-inducing situations. Conversational and reading speech samples will be video-recorded in two fluency-inducing situations: the least and most anxiety-inducing situations. Fluency Profile Assessment will be administered to evaluate disfluencies and secondary behaviors in younger and older groups of adolescents in the two situations. Analysis of Variance will be conducted to examine group differences in disfluencies and secondary behaviors. It is predicted that older adolescents will demonstrate more fluency disruptions and secondary behaviors in comparison to younger adolescents in anxiety-inducing situations.