Factors influencing persistence and recovery in stuttering: The role of intelligence, self-esteem and bullying

Early research has shown that people who stutter tend to be of lower than average intelligence and are more likely to be bullied than their peers who do not stutter. Their self-esteem, however, is close to average. Studies have not looked at all of these factors in the same group of individuals. Consequently, this study investigated intelligence, self-esteem and experiences of being bullied in a sample of 29 young people who stutter. Participants were divided into a persistent and a recovered group as it was hypothesised that earlier findings might be more apparent with speakers who persist with their stutter. The Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices (Raven, Raven & Court, 2004), Harter's (1985, 1988) self-perception profiles and a newly-designed bullying questionnaire were used to assess intelligence, self-esteem and experiences of being bullied, respectively. It was found that the intelligence and self-esteem (when measured by competency alone in particular skill domains) for both groups were not significantly below the average for fluent people. However, it was found that the incidence of bullying reported to be experienced by both groups was much higher than estimates for bullying in school children in general (not necessarily with fluency problems). No difference was found in intelligence or experiences of being bullied between the persistent and recovered groups. However, the self-esteem of the recovered group was significantly lower than that of the persistent group, when measured by the mean discrepancy between competence and importance scores in particular skill domains. These findings are discussed for their significance in relation to the treatment and support provided for young people who stutter