Research study: The impact of emotional processes on stuttering in young school-age children who do and do not stutter (2021)

Research study: The impact of emotional processes on stuttering in young school-age children who do and do not stutter (2021) **Research**: "*The Impact of Emotional Processes on Stuttering in Young School-Age Children Who Do and Do Not Stutter*" (2021) **Link**: [https://www.e-csd.org/journal/view.php?number=1079](https://www.e-csd.org/journal/view.php?number=1079) **Abstract** *Objectives:* The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in emotional processes (emotional reactivity and emotional regulation) between children who stutter (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CWNS). In addition, we attempted to explore whether positive or negative emotion-eliciting conditions increase stuttering in CWS and CWNS. *Methods:* Twelve young school-age CWS and thirteen young school-age CWNS participated in this research. The Korean version of the Children’s Behavior Questionnaire Short Form (CBQ-SF) was employed to investigate the characteristics of children’s emotional processes (i.e., three factors: Surgency, Negative Affectivity, & Effortful control). Each participant completed a series of tasks that were designed to elicit emotions such as neutral, anxiety, pleasure, and frustration. After each task, the participant was asked to tell a story based on a wordless picture book. *Results:* Findings indicated (1) no significant differences in the three factors of emotional processes between CWS and CWNS; (2) no significant correlations between the three factors of emotional processes and speech disfluency rates (i.e., other disfluencies, OD and stuttering-like disfluencies, SLD) in CWS and CWNS; and (3) a significant difference in SLD between the frustration and neutral conditions for CWS but not for CWNS. *Conclusion:* The findings from this study suggest that although CWS are not necessarily different from CWNS in emotional reactivity and regulation, CWS’s speech system seems to be vulnerable to a frustrating situation and their speech fluency is more likely to be disrupted by the frustrating emotion. **Key findings:** * The study found no significant differences in emotional reactivity and regulation between children who stutter (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CWNS) * The findings suggest no temperamental differences between CWS and CWNS * The study's results challenge common perceptions that stuttering children are shy, self-conscious, sensitive, anxious, and fearful, as reported by the public * No significant correlations were found between disfluency rates and emotional reactivity/regulation in both CWS and CWNS. An explanation is that emotional reactivity and regulation interact independently, potentially moderating each other's effects on stuttering * A significant difference in stuttering rates was observed between the "Frustration" and "Neutral" conditions for CWS, but not for CWNS. CWS stuttered more under frustration. No significant differences were found between "Anxiety" vs. "Neutral" and "Pleasure" vs. "Neutral" conditions for either group. This suggests frustration triggers increased stuttering in CWS, possibly due to the activation of a behavioral inhibition system or the dominance of negative emotions in the right hemisphere, which compensates for speech deficits in the left hemisphere. The lack of significant findings in "Anxiety" and "Pleasure" conditions might be due to insufficient emotional elicitation ​