PerceptualandMotor Skills, 1991, 72, 766. O Perceptual and Motor SkiUs 1991

SOCIAL ANXIETY AND STUTTERING ' FLOOR W. KRAAIMAAT, PEGGY JANSSEN, AND RIEN VAN DAM-BAGGEN

Academic Hospital, Utrecht, The Netherlands Summary.-Social anxiety among 110 stutterers was compared with the measures of two control groups (110 social phobic patients and 110 normal persons). Results do not support the notion of social anxiety as an essential part of stuttering. Stuttering has been explained as a phenomenon of communicative anxiety (1). More specifically, social anxiety has been seen as an essential part of scuttering. Data about the presence of social anxiety among stutterers are lacking. I n the present study social anxiety among stutterers was compared with like measures from two control groups. The subjects were 110 diagnosed stutterers, 110 social phobic patients who were referred lor social skius training, and 110 normal control subjects. The three groups were matched for age, sex, and education. The sex ratio in each group was 2 men to 1 woman; mean age was 26.5 yr., 28 yr., and 29.1 yr. for stutterers, social phobics, and control subjects, respecrlvely Their social anxiety was assessed on the Social Anxiety Schedule Likert scale; maximum total score is 96. Grou~ Stutterers Social Phobics Normal Subjects

M

SD

Skewness

54.26 70.73 35.49

16.78 16.60 15.70

.18 -1.00 .55

The means and standard deviations for each group are reported in the table. Differences between the groups, tested by a one-way analysis of variance, were significant (F,,,,,= 127.54, p