Self-efficacy scaling by adult stutterers.

A scale was developed for estimating adult stutterers' confidence for entering and maintaining fluency in a variety of speaking situations. This Self-Efficacy Scale for Adult Stutterers (SESAS) was administered to 20 adult stutterers along with the shortened form of the Erickson Scale of Communication Attitudes and the Perceptions of Stuttering Inventory. Twenty nonstuttering adults were also given the SESAS the self-efficacy scores significantly differentiated between stutterers and nonstutterers. SESAS scores were correlated with the Erickson Scale (-0.71) and the Perceptions of Stuttering Inventory (-0.52). A correlation of -0.51 was found for SESAS scores and stutterers' self-ratings of severity. Test-retest reliability for the SESAS averaged 0.89. The results suggest that with continued development, self-efficacy scaling may be a useful technique for measuring one aspect of change during treatment.