The Relationship of Self-Efficacy and Depression to Stuttering

• Published in: American journal of speech-language pathology Vol. 12; no. 4; pp. 425 - 431
• Main Authors: Bray, Melissa A, Kehle, Thomas J, Lawless, Kimberly A, Theodore, Lea A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States ASHA 01.11.2003; American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Adolescent; Adolescents; Adult; Assertiveness; Behavior modification; Beliefs; Child & adolescent psychiatry; Child psychology; Children & youth; Communication; Depression - epidemiology; Depression - psychology; Discriminant Analysis; Educational Status; Epistemology; Female; Fluency; Generalization; Group Membership; Humans; Intervention; Language disorders; Locus of Control; Maintenance; Male; Mental depression; Mental Disorders; Multivariate Analysis; Negative Attitudes; Neurological Impairments; Self Efficacy; Self Help Programs; Severity of Illness Index; Speaking; Speech; Stuttering; Stuttering - diagnosis; Stuttering - epidemiology; Surveys and Questionnaires; Teenagers; Variables; United States > US; Connecticut
• ISSN: 1058-0360; 1558-9110
• DOI: 10.1044/1058-0360(2003/088)

This study investigated the relationship of self-efficacy for verbal fluency, academic self-efficacy, and depression between adolescents who stutter and fluent speakers. Two separate discriminant function analyses were performed. The first analysis used the self-efficacy and depression scores as response variables and fluency classification as the grouping variable. Results indicated that self-efficacy for speech was the sole significant variable and accounted for 61% of the variance in group status. A second simplified discriminant function analysis was performed using speech self-efficacy as the sole predictor of group membership. This single discriminant function correctly classified 81% of the overall sample into their known groups. Further, classification for participants who did not stutter (95.2%) was better than for those who did stutter (67%). Based on this and earlier research, adolescents appear to be capable of using self-efficacy scaling as a measure of confidence for verbal fluency, which may eventually prove to be useful in treatment.