Anxiety and Stuttering: Differences in speech production between face-to-face and telephone communication

Abstract

In this study, the possible relationship between anxiety and stuttering during two real-life speaking situations—talking on the telephone and face-to-face conversation—was examined using quantitative measures. For two groups of participants—16 adults who stutter (AWS) and 15 adults who do not stutter (ANS), the state-trait anxiety (STAI) and the electrodermal-activity (EDA) were measured, and their relationship with stuttering and disfluency frequencies were analyzed using a principal component analysis and a generalized linear model. Results revealed only the AWS group, not the ANS group, demonstrated significantly higher anxiety and autonomic arousal during the telephone task than the face-to-face task. Two different principal-factors were found in EDA: one correlates with increase of stuttering frequency, the other with decrease of it. The optimal generalized linear model of stuttering frequency indicates that increase of EDA during telephone conversation, which induces high state anxiety only for AWS, correlates with increase of stuttering frequency, while increase of EDA during face-to-face conversation, which induces low state anxiety for AWS, correlates with decrease of disfluency. These findings suggest that reduction of the state anxiety may have positive effects on stuttering symptoms.