SOCIAL ANXIETY AND SAFETY BEHAVIOURS IN INDIAN FEMALES WHO STUTTER

Shweta Gupta*, Alpana Rastogi b , Nalini Rastogi c and Krishna Dutt d

ABSTRACT

Background:
People who stutter often face both speech difficulties and social challenges. In stressful social
situations, they resort to safety behaviours to cope with anxiety. However, these behaviours can worsen anxiety
over time and lead to l ess effective treatment outcomes. Research on females is limited due to higher childhood
recovery rates, leading to a male to female ratio of 4:1 among adults. Negligible information is available on Indian
females with persistent stuttering. Aim: This stud y explores the relationship between social anxiety and the
frequency of safety behaviours among Indian females who stutter. Methods: Ten females who visited King
George’s Medical University, Lucknow, for stuttering treatment participated in the study. The Liebowitz Social
Anxiety Scale assessed their social anxiety, and the Safety Behaviour Checklist 2023 assessed the usage frequency
of specific safety behaviours during social encounters. Correlations were established between the frequency of
safety behavio ur and the pretreatment score of social anxiety. Results: The results showed that all ten participants
experienced high levels of social anxiety and frequently used safety behaviours. Most safety behaviours were found
to be positively correlated with socia l anxiety, except a few. Conclusion: This suggests a strong connection
between social anxiety and the use of safety behaviours in females who stutter. However, a few exceptions indicate
that some safety behaviours may have different underlying factors.

Keywords: Females who stutter, social anxiety, safety behaviours, India, gender sensitive interventions.