Self-perceived competence and social acceptance of children who stutter

Recommended Citation Hertsberg, Naomi. "Self-perceived competence and social acceptance of children who stutter. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Tricia Zebrowski for her thoughtful and persistent guidance throughout the entire thesis-writing process. She encouraged me to think deeply and critically about the topics included in this work, and motivated me to write something that was more than just " good enough. " Another big thanks to my committee members, Toni Cilek and Dr. Melissa Duff, for their participation, input, and faith in me that I would finish in time to graduate with my cohort. Lastly, thanks to Dr. Barry Guitar and Kristin Chmela, my mentors and fellow members of the tribe of the tangled tongue, for their continued inspiration and unwavering support. I have been incredibly fortunate to have so many insightful, caring, and inspiring teachers in my life so far. iii ABSTRACT Young children who stutter have shown the capability of developing an awareness of stuttering as early as age two communication difficulty and the response of listeners to his speech has the potential to adversely affect his cognitive and social-emotional development, as well as his self-perception of overall competence. The purpose of this study was to examine self-perceived general competence and social acceptance in children who stutter (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CWNS), and to assess the extent to which temperament, speech disfluency, expressive and receptive language abilities, and home environment both co-vary and predict children's perception of their own competence. Participants included 16 CWS and 16 CWNS between the ages of 4;0 and 5;10. Results of the MANOVA revealed no significant between-group differences in perceived competence or social acceptance, language abilities, temperament, or home environment between the two groups; because stuttering severity and time since onset of stuttering were not calculated for CWNS, these two values were not included in the MANOVA. Results of the backwards linear regressions revealed that the best two-regressor model for predicting perceived general competence in all subjects included the temperament constructs of surgency and negative affectivity; in CWS only, surgency and expressive language together were the most predictive of perceived general competence. The best two-regressor model for predicting perceived social acceptance in all subjects included negative affectivity and receptive language; in CWS only, receptive language and stuttering severity together were most predictive of perceived social acceptance. However, none of these relationships reached significance. Taken …