2007 Volume 55 Issue 4 Pages 501-513
The purpose of the present study was to examine whether the self-esteem of children who stutter is related to the communication domain. This is based on a model that holds that self-esteem for individuals is more strongly related to domains considered important for oneself, and less strongly related to domains considered less important for oneself. A self-perception scale was administered to 338 third-through sixth-grade children who stutter and who were enrolled in special speech classes in public elementary schools (CWS), and 692 children who do not stutter. The results were as follows: (1) There were 5 significant predictor variables of the self-esteem of the children who stutter: self-evaluation of physical appearance, social acceptance, behavioral conduct, relations-with-parents domain, and the importance of the communication domain for oneself.(2) The self-esteem of the children who evaluated stuttering negatively was more strongly related to the variables of the communication domain than was that of children who did not evaluate stuttering negatively.(3) The children who evaluated stuttering negatively attached a higher value to the communication domain than did the children who did not evaluate it negatively.
