Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital, Alberta Health Services, Edmonton, Canada.
Am J Speech Lang Pathol. 2021 Mar 26;30(2):663-672. doi: 10.1044/2020_AJSLP-20-00118. Epub 2021 Mar 1.
Purpose Client-based subjective ratings of treatment and outcomes are becoming increasingly important as speech-language pathologists embrace client-centered care practices. Of particular interest is the value in understanding how these ratings are related to aspects of gender-affirming voice and communication training programs for transgender and gender-diverse individuals. The purpose of this observational study was to explore relationships between acoustic and gestural communication variables and communicator-rated subjective measures of femininity, communication satisfaction, and quality of life (QoL) among transfeminine communicators. Method Twelve acoustic and gestural variables were measured from high-fidelity audio and motion capture recordings of transgender women ( = 20) retelling the story of a short cartoon. The participants also completed a set of subjective ratings using a series of Likert-type rating scales, a generic QoL questionnaire, and a population-specific voice-related QoL questionnaire. Correlational analyses were used to identify relationships between the communication measures and subjective ratings. Results A significant negative relationship was identified between the use of palm-up hand gestures and self-rated satisfaction with overall communication. The acoustic variable of average semitone range was positively correlated with overall QoL. No acoustic measures were significantly correlated with voice-related QoL, and unlike previous studies, speaking fundamental frequency was not associated with any of the subjective ratings. Conclusions The results from this study suggest that voice characteristics may have limited association with communicator-rated subjective measures of communication satisfaction or QoL for this population. Results also provide preliminary evidence for the importance of nonverbal communication targets in gender-affirming voice and communication training programs.
目的 随着言语语言病理学家接受以客户为中心的护理实践，基于客户的治疗和结果主观评价变得越来越重要。特别感兴趣的是了解这些评价如何与跨性别和性别多样化个体的性别肯定性语音和沟通培训计划的某些方面相关联。本观察性研究的目的是探讨在变女性沟通者中，声学和手势沟通变量与沟通者对女性气质、沟通满意度和生活质量（QoL）的主观评价之间的关系。
方法 从 20 名跨性别女性重述卡通短片故事的高保真音频和运动捕捉记录中测量了 12 个声学和手势变量。参与者还使用一系列李克特量表、通用 QoL 问卷和特定人群的与声音相关的 QoL 问卷完成了一系列主观评价。相关性分析用于确定沟通措施与主观评价之间的关系。
结果 手掌向上的手势使用与整体沟通满意度呈显著负相关。平均半音范围的声学变量与整体 QoL 呈正相关。没有声学测量与与声音相关的 QoL 显著相关，与之前的研究不同，基频与任何主观评价都没有关联。
结论 这项研究的结果表明，对于该人群，语音特征可能与沟通者对沟通满意度或 QoL 的主观评价关联有限。结果还为性别肯定性语音和沟通培训计划中非言语沟通目标的重要性提供了初步证据。
