Development and Validation of Mothers’ Anxiety Scale of Children with Stuttering Disorder

Stuttering is children's most prevalent verbal disorder and the most frequent speech disorder. The role of parents has always been considered among causes, such as heredity, brain damage, and emotions, including fear and anxiety. A proper mother–child relationship can help the child develop speech and prevent undesirable social relationships. However, social and environmental effects can lead to anxiety and stress in mother and child. Moreover, children and adolescents with stuttering might encounter anxiety, depression, and distance from the community and school. The mothers of children with stuttering experience more stress than those of typically developing children. They are more sensitive to their child's ability to speak properly. This can lead to psychological problems, such as anxiety, anger, depression, and poor cognitive function in these mothers. Considering this problem in mothers and the need to reduce it among mothers, it was necessary to evaluate it by constructing a valid scale; thus, the present study aimed to construct and validate the mothers’ anxiety scale of children with stuttering.

This survey identified effective anxiety characteristics by creating and validating a scale for measuring the characteristics of mothers' anxiety of children with a stuttering disorder based on Murphy and Davidshofer's testing (2005). The study’s statistical population consisted of all mothers of children with the stuttering disorder in Isfahan City, Iran, in 2019. After studying sources related to anxiety in the mothers of children with the stuttering disorder to investigate general and structural factors, 15 mothers of children with stuttering disorder were selected through a random sampling method; they were interviewed in a semi–structural model. After analyzing the obtained data by content analysis method, 14 questions were designed, i.e., answered on a 5–point Likert–type scale (from completely disagree to completely agree). Next, the statistical sample consisted of 200 subjects selected by the convenience sampling method. The measurement tools were the Mothers of Children with Stuttering Disorder Scale, Parenting Stress Scale (Abidin, 1995), and Beck Anxiety Inventory (Beck et al., 1988). The obtained data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean & standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Cronbach's alpha, Pearson correlation coefficient, exploratory factor analysis, intrinsic cluster correlation) in SPSS at the significance level of 0.05.

The collected findings indicated that internal consistency (α=0.943) and reliability of retesting of the scale (p=0.001, ICC=0.822) were appropriate. There were positive and significant correlations between this scale and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (r=0.360, p=0.020) and Parental Stress Scale (r=0.316 p=0.036), indicating the probable convergent validity of this scale. The exploratory factor analysis data also revealed two factors, mother–mother– focused anxiety (p=0.001, r=0.965) (5 items; concerning about insufficient efforts to treat stuttering in the child with stuttering disorder, appropriate behavior to the child with stuttering disorder, getting others' attention, the curiosity of others and judging by individuals because of the child with stuttering disorder ) and anxiety concerning children with stuttering (p=0.001, r=0.716) (9 items; being ridiculed by the others or children, the child's ability to convey his/her message to others, the child's ability to defend his or her rights, the child's ability to have friends in school and in the community, the child being considered poor and teachers' neglect of the child's educational status, teachers' neglect of the child, the child's ability to achieve his or her desired position in society, the child not being treated, exacerbating the child's stuttering in the certain conditions) had a significant relationship with the total score. Thus, the coordination of questions was appropriate.

The present study results suggested that the researcher–made Scale the Mothers' Anxiety of Children with Stuttering Disorder has desirable psychometric properties; therefore, it can be used for research, educational and therapeutic purposes.