Speech Pathology, UniSA Allied Health and Human Performance, University of South Australia, GPO Box 2471, Adelaide SA 5001, Australia.
College of Education, Psychology and Social Work, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide SA 5001, Australia.
J Commun Disord. 2024 Nov-Dec;112:106472. doi: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2024.106472. Epub 2024 Oct 24.
Adults who stutter are at risk of developing high levels of social anxiety, leading to negative outcomes and contributing towards stuttering relapse post treatment. To ensure that psychological treatments for social anxiety in stuttering adults are relevant and effective, a broader empirical understanding of the mechanisms of social anxiety in stuttering populations is required. Four key cognitive processing biases identified as maintenance factors in cognitive behavioral models of social anxiety were examined: self-focused attention, safety behavior use, negative self-imagery, and interpretation bias.
Adults who stutter and non-stuttering adults (N = 186) were assessed via an online survey. Participants were categorised into two groups based on stuttering: formally diagnosed stuttering and non-stuttering. Within those groups, participants were further categorised as having low or high levels of social anxiety. Cognitive processing bias was assessed in response to two hypothetical social scenarios (i.e., social interaction and social performance).
As predicted, in both adults who stutter and who are non-stuttering, high social anxiety was related to greater self-focused attention, safety behavior use and negative self-imagery compared to low social anxiety. No significant effect of social anxiety or stuttering was found in relation to interpretation bias. A significant effect of social anxiety upon negative self-imagery was observed in formally-diagnosed adults who stutter compared to non-stuttering adults.
The results support the use of cognitive behavioral models of social anxiety as a framework for research and treatment development within stuttering populations.
口吃者有发展出高水平社交焦虑的风险，这会导致负面结果，并促使口吃治疗后复发。为确保口吃成人的社交焦虑心理治疗具有相关性和有效性，需要更广泛地了解口吃人群中社交焦虑的机制。本研究检验了被认知行为模型确定为社交焦虑维持因素的四个关键认知加工偏差：自我关注、安全行为使用、消极自我意象和解释偏差。
通过在线调查评估了口吃者和非口吃者成年人（N=186）。根据口吃情况将参与者分为两组：正式诊断的口吃者和非口吃者。在这些组中，进一步根据社交焦虑的高低将参与者分为低社交焦虑组和高社交焦虑组。在对两个假设的社交场景（即社交互动和社交表现）的反应中评估认知加工偏差。
正如预期的那样，在口吃者和非口吃者中，高社交焦虑与更高的自我关注、安全行为使用和消极自我意象有关，而与低社交焦虑相比。在解释偏差方面，社交焦虑或口吃均无显著影响。在正式诊断的口吃成年人中，与非口吃成年人相比，社交焦虑对消极自我意象有显著影响。
研究结果支持将社交焦虑的认知行为模型作为口吃人群研究和治疗发展的框架。
