Lowe Robyn, Helgadottir Fjola, Menzies Ross, Heard Rob, O'Brian Sue, Packman Ann, Onslow Mark
The University of Sydney, Australia.
The Vancouver CBT Centre, Canada.
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2017 May 24;60(5):1246-1253. doi: 10.1044/2016_JSLHR-S-16-0055.
Those who are socially anxious may use safety behaviors during feared social interactions to prevent negative outcomes. Safety behaviors are associated with anxiety maintenance and poorer treatment outcomes because they prevent fear extinction. Social anxiety disorder is often comorbid with stuttering. Speech pathologists reported in a recent publication (Helgadottir, Menzies, Onslow, Packman, & O'Brian, 2014a) that they often recommended procedures for clients that could be safety behaviors. This study investigated the self-reported use of safety behaviors by adults who stutter.
Participants were 133 adults who stutter enrolled in an online cognitive-behavior therapy program. Participants completed a questionnaire about their use of potential safety behaviors when anxious during social encounters. Correlations were computed between safety behaviors and pretreatment scores on measures of fear of negative evaluation and negative cognitions.
Of 133 participants, 132 reported that they used safety behaviors. Many of the safety behaviors correlated with higher scores for fear of negative evaluation and negative cognitions.
Adults who stutter report using safety behaviors, and their use is associated with pretreatment fear of negative evaluation and unhelpful thoughts about stuttering. These results suggest that the negative effects of safety behaviors may extend to those who stutter, and further research is needed.
社交焦虑者在令人恐惧的社交互动中可能会采用安全行为来避免负面结果。安全行为与焦虑维持及较差的治疗效果相关，因为它们会阻碍恐惧消退。社交焦虑障碍常与口吃共病。言语病理学家在最近的一篇出版物中（赫尔加多蒂尔、门齐斯、昂斯洛、帕克曼和奥布赖恩，2014年a）报告称，他们经常为客户推荐可能属于安全行为的程序。本研究调查了口吃成年人自我报告的安全行为使用情况。
参与者为133名参加在线认知行为治疗项目的口吃成年人。参与者完成了一份关于他们在社交场合焦虑时使用潜在安全行为情况的问卷。计算了安全行为与负性评价恐惧和负性认知测量指标的治疗前得分之间的相关性。
在133名参与者中，132人报告使用了安全行为。许多安全行为与更高的负性评价恐惧得分和负性认知得分相关。
口吃成年人报告使用安全行为，且其使用与治疗前对负性评价的恐惧以及对口吃的无益想法有关。这些结果表明，安全行为的负面影响可能延伸至口吃者，需要进一步研究。
