Social Anxiety And Perfectionism In Young People Who Stutter

The purpose of the present research was to screen for social anxiety and perfectionism among young people who stutter (PWS). Participants included 71 PWS and 51 normally-fluent controls. Young PWS were characterized by significantly higher rates of social anxiety, which involved social distress, social avoidance and fear of negative evaluation. The rate of perfectionism in experimental group equated the severity of maladaptive perfectionism in patients with anxiety disorders. PWS tend to interpret others as imposing unrealistically high standards and re- quirements on them and critically evaluating their actions. They constantly select negative information, failures and mistakes, depreciating and not noticing their own achievements and successes. They are inclined to dichotomous and polarized thinking (of “all or nothing” type). Severity of stuttering in young people is associated with social anxiety and perfectionism. The results of present study evidence the need to highlight significant social anxiety and maladaptive perfectionism in PWS as targets of psychotherapy.We express gratitude to Khavanov A.Yu., Head of the Department of Logoneurosis of «Center of Speech Pathology and Neurorehabilitation — Moscow Department of Healthcare», and his colleagues (Geras’kin A.A., Bogdanov M.A.) for their help in research conduction.