Emotional reactivity and regulation associated with fluent and stuttered utterances of preschool-age children who stutter

• Emotions of children who do (CWS) and do not (CWNS) were compared.
• During fluent utterances, regulation differed between-groups as a function of condition.
• Emotions of CWS were compared between fluent and stuttered utterances.
• For CWS, negative emotion is significantly more likely prior and during stuttered utterances, particularly following positive conditions.
• Emotion of CWS was associated with stuttered and fluent utterances.

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to assess the relation between emotional reactivity and regulation associated with fluent and stuttered utterances of preschool-age children who stutter (CWS) and those who do not (CWNS).ParticipantsParticipants were eight 3 to 6-year old CWS and eight CWNS of comparable age and gender.MethodsParticipants were exposed to three emotion-inducing overheard conversations—neutral, angry and happy—and produced a narrative following each overheard conversation. From audio-video recordings of these narratives, coded behavioral analysis of participants’ negative and positive affect and emotion regulation associated with stuttered and fluent utterances was conducted.ResultsResults indicated that CWS were significantly more likely to exhibit emotion regulation attempts prior to and during their fluent utterances following the happy as compared to the negative condition, whereas CWNS displayed the opposite pattern. Within-group assessment indicated that CWS were significantly more likely to display negative emotion prior to and during their stuttered than fluent utterances, particularly following the positive overheard conversation.ConclusionsAfter exposure to emotional-inducing overheard conversations, changes in preschool-age CWS's emotion and emotion regulatory attempts were associated with the fluency of their utterances.Learning outcomes: After reading this article, the reader will be able to: (1) describe various measures of emotional reactivity and regulation, including parent-based reports and behavioral coding, and how they may contribute to childhood stuttering; (2) explain emotional differences between the stuttered and fluent utterances of CWS and CWNS; and (3) discuss how emotions may contribute to CWS’ instances of stuttering.