Comparison of the Effect of Parental Attitudes on the Emotion Regulation Skills of Preschool Children With and Without Stuttering

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study is to comparatively examine the effect of parental attitudes on the emotion regulation skills of children aged 4-6 with and without stuttering.

Materials and Methods: A total of 60 children and their parents, 30 of whom stutter and 30 of whom do not stutter, between the ages of 4 and 6, residing in the Maltepe, Üsküdar and Kadıköy districts of Istanbul, were included in the study. The “Personal Information Form”, the “Emotion Regulation Scale (ERS)” measuring children’s emotion regulation skills and the “Parental Attitude Scale (PAS)” determining parental attitudes were used to collect the research data. The data obtained from the study were analyzed using the SPSS 26.0 package program.

Results: Parents of children with and without stuttering are similar in terms of sociodemographic characteristics. Children with stuttering have higher mean Emotion Regulation Skill scores than their normal peers, and it was determined that especially the ERS Variability/Negativity and ERS total scores of these children differed significantly from children without stuttering (p<0.05). While the Parenting Attitude Scale scores of children with stuttering did not have a significant effect on the Emotion Regulation Scale total and sub-dimension scores (p>0.05), it was found that the parenting attitudes of children without stuttering had a significant effect on their emotion regulation skills (p<0.01). It was found that the authoritarian parenting attitude had a statistically significant effect on the Emotion Regulation Scale total score and lability/negativity score.

Conclusion: It has been observed that children who stutter may have difficulty in emotion regulation skills due to their higher Emotion Regulation Scale scores, parental attitudes do not have an effect on emotion regulation skills, but parental attitudes of children who do not stutter significantly affect emotion regulation skills.

Keywords: Emotion Regulation Skills, Parental Attitude, Preschool, Stuttering