The topic I have chosen is one that interests me because of my major being Speech Pathology. I have chosen the topic of bullying in adolescents who stutter. Stuttering is an unintentional repetition of words while bullying is treating someone poorly by seeking them out and causing harm. I believe this is a very important topic in that children who stutter are often times bullied and start to feel inferior. “A subgroup of adolescents who stutter (15%-41%) report high communication fears, poor communication confidence and low self-esteem” (Blood, G., & Blood, I. 2004). This is a major problem when looking at it from the speech pathology side because if a child begins to feel inferior or is being bullied, he or she may decide that they do not want to talk at all anymore.
This will cause a major delay in speech production for this child and they may feel like they can’t talk ever again because when they do, they are looked down upon. No child should ever feel inferior or bullied because of the way that they speak. Stuttering is a very common speech disorder and affects many children. Children should feel confident in the way they sound and speak and should never have to worry about the negative effects that bullying has on an individual. “Bullying is a subtype of aggression and an international problem for school-age children” (Blood, G., & Blood, I. 2004).
The research conducted included 53 adolescents who did stutter and 53 adolescents who don’t stutter between the age of 13 to 18 years old who go to school and those who did stutter were being treated by a speech pathologist (Blood, G., & Blood, I. 2004). All of these students also met a certain criterion of, “no repetition of grade a grade level, no placement in a special classroom, absence of history of chronic physical or psychological disabilities (diabetes, asthma, or neurological, learning, reading or mental disabilities), and no history of chronic truancy” (Blood, G., & Blood, I. 2004).
According to the article, the adolescent demographic included 94 males and 12 females and the participants who stuttered were rated based on their stuttering from mild to very severe. “Assent and consent forms were completed before the study” (Blood, G., & Blood, I. 2004). Gordon and Ingrid Blood mentioned that an array of information was collected prior to the study. The researchers also stated that participants who were tested were told to complete paper and pencil tests individually using instructions that were given to them. The adolescents filled out many questionnaires and scales but those listed below were the only ones reported (Blood, G., & Blood, I. 2004).
There were three different instruments used during this research study. The LIS, which means the Life In School checklist was the first instrument talked about. Gordon and Ingrid Blood wrote that the LIS is a published scale and was used in order to measure bullying. According to the journal, the exact word of bullying is not used in the LIS because the researchers believe that the data would be less accurate due to an emotional response from the participant. “The LIS consists of 39 statements that a student might experience during the past week in school” (Blood, G., & Blood, I. 2004).
According to Gordon and Ingrid Blood, some of the statements are pleasant or neutral while the others are unpleasant happenings. The RSES which means the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale was another instrument used in conducting this research and is very widely used. According to the article, if a participant scores higher on this test, that shows that they display poor self-esteem. The third and final instrument used to conduct this study was the SPCC scale which means Self-Perceived Communication Competence. According to Gordon and Ingrid Blood, this scale is a measure of an individual’s perception of if he/she communicates effectively. The journal states that they are told to rate their competence on a scale from 0-100 in four different settings and among three communication receivers.
The results showed that adolescents that stutter are more likely to be bullied which is what the researchers believed before starting this study. Results showed that “adolescents who stutter were at a significantly higher risk of experiencing bullying behavior (43%) than were adolescents who do not stutter (11%)” (Blood, G., & Blood, I. 2004). The results of this journal found that students who stutter also rated themselves as having poor communicative competence. Gordon and Ingrid Blood did find that students who had poor self-esteem and communicative competence were more likely to be bullied. “As the risk of bullying increased (higher scores), the likelihood of poorer self-esteem also increased (higher scores)” (Blood, G., & Blood, I. 2004).
The adolescents who stutter and are at risk for bullying have a mean self-esteem score of 20.7 while those who stutter are not at risk for bullying have a mean self-esteem score of 15.1. The group mean of the adolescents who stutter have a mean self-esteem score was 17.1. In contrast to this, adolescents who do not stutter who are at risk for bullying have a mean self-esteem score of 19.1 while adolescents who do not stutter and are not at risk for bullying have a mean self-esteem score of 15.3. The group mean of the adolescents who do not stutter have a mean self-esteem of 15.9. Gordon and Ingrid Blood found that adolescents who stutter are more at risk for bullying compared to their non-stuttering classmates and that speech pathologists should be cautious about this because they deal with these children and can be a voice for them in a school setting (Blood, G., & Blood, I. 2004).
References
- Blood, G. W., & Blood, I. M. (2004). Bullying in adolescents who stutter: Communicative competence and self-esteem. Contemporary Issues in Communication Science and Disorders, 31(31), 69-79.
