The effects of life stressors and daily stressors on stuttering.

This study systemically documented the effect of perceived daily stress on subjective and objective measures of disfluencies in 12 adults who stuttered and 12 adults who did not stutter. Subjects participated in a prospective research study for 22 consecutive days. Measures of life stress, daily stress, and self-ratings of fluency were obtained. Subjects were trained in rating their fluency levels (self-ratings of fluency) and perceived daily stress levels (frequency and perceived impact of daily stressors). Results revealed a significantly higher number of daily stressors endorsed by subjects who stutter. Subjects who stuttered also displayed a significantly greater number of disfluencies and higher self-ratings of disfluencies on "high-stress" days. No significant differences were found between the mean total scores for life stress or impact scores for daily stress for the two groups. These data suggest that day-to-day variations in stuttering could be related to multiple, minor, daily stressors in some persons who stutter. Implications for treatments involving cognitive restructuring and desensitization are discussed.