Okul Çağı Döneminde Kekemeliği Olan ve Olmayan Çocukların Duygu Düzenleme Becerilerinin Karşılaştırılması: Ön Bulgular

Giriş: Duygu düzenleme becerisi duyguların farkında olmak ve duyguları uygun bir şekilde kullanabilmektir. Bu süreç duygusal tepkileri ortamın koşullarına uyum gösterecek şekilde gözleme, değerlendirme ve değiştirebilme becerisini içermektedir. Uluslararası alan yazında kekemeliği olan çocukların duygu düzenleme becerilerinde birtakım güçlükler yaşadığını gösteren araştırmalar mevcuttur. Bu çalışmanın amacı okul çağında kekemeliği olan ve olmayan çocukların duygu düzenleme becerilerinin karşılaştırılmasıdır. Yöntem: Araştırmanın çalışma grubu, 6-12 yaş aralığındaki kekemeliği olan (n=25) ve olmayan (n=25) toplam 50 çocuk ve bu çocukların ebeveynlerinden oluşmaktadır. Araştırmada veri toplama aracı olarak 6-12 yaş grubundaki çocukların duygu düzenleme becerilerini değerlendirmek amacıyla geliştirilmiş ve sonrasında Türkçeye uyarlanmış Duygu Ayarlama Ölçeği (Emotion Regulation Checklist) ve kişisel bilgi formu kullanılmıştır. Veri toplama araçlarından kişisel bilgi formu uzman dil konuşma terapistleri tarafından doldurulmuştur.  Duygu Ayarlama Ölçeği ise her katılımcının ebeveyni tarafından doldurulmuştur. Araştırmada, bu ölçeğin “Değişkenlik/ Olumsuzluk” ve “Duygu Ayarlama” alt-boyutları ve bu alt-boyutların toplam skorundan elde edilen “Bütünleşik Duygu Ayarlama” skoru kullanılmıştır. Elde edilen veriler SPSS 21.0 paket programı kullanılarak Mann Whitney-U Testi ile analiz edilmiştir. Bulgular: Kekemeliği olan ve olmayan grupların kullanılan ölçeğin alt boyutları olan “Değişkenlik/ Olumsuzluk” ve “Duygu Ayarlama” skorları bakımından anlamlı düzeyde farklılaştığı görülmüştür. Bunun yanında; gruplar “Bütünleşik Duygu Ayarlama” skorları bakımından anlamlı düzeyde farklılaşmaktadır.  Sonuç ve Tartışma: Kekemeliği olan gruptaki çocukların duygu düzenleme becerileri kekemeliği olmayan gruptaki çocuklardan anlamlı düzeyde düşüktür. Kekemeliği olan çocuklara yönelik değerlendirilme ve terapi sürecinde; dil ve konuşma terapistlerinin duygu düzenleme becerilerini göz önünde bulundurarak gerekli yönlendirmeleri yapması, çevresel ve terapiye yönelik düzenlemelerde bulunması önemli görülmektedir. 

Introduction: Emotion regulation is to be aware of emotions and able to use them appropriately. This process includes the ability to observe, assess, and change emotional reactions appropriate to the circumstances of the environment (Eisenberg, Fabes, Guthrie, & Reiser, 2000). In the stuttering literature, there are a number of studies that show children with stuttering have a variety of difficulties with emotion regulation (Karrass etc., 2006; Johnson, Walden, Conture, & Karrass, 2010; Arnold, Conture, Key, & Walden, 2011; Zengin-Bolatkale, Conture, Key, Walden, & Jones, 2018). The aim of this study is to compare emotion regulation of school age children with and without stuttering. Method: The study consists of 50 school-age children with (n=25) and without (n=25) stuttering between the ages of 6 and 12. The participants are recruited from Anadolu University Speech and Language Disorders Education, Research, and Therapy Center (DILKOM). Exclusion criteria were having no psychiatric or neurological disorder, less than %3 stuttering rate and concomitant speech and language disorders. In the study, Emotion Regulation Checklist, which was originally developed by Shields and Cicchetti (1997) and adapted to Turkish by Kapçı, Uslu, Akgün and Acer (2009), was used to collect data, in addition to the demographic information form. The Emotion Regulation Checklist was completed by parents, and the demographic information sheet was filled by speech and language therapists. The Emotion Regulation Checklist is a 24-item form, composed of two sub-dimensions named Emotional Lability/Negativity and Emotion Regulation. In the study, these two sub-dimensions and the Composite Emotion Regulation score, which was obtained from total score of these two sub-scales, were used. Statistical analyses were performed with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 21 software. Kolmogorov-Smirnov test showed that the data was not normally distributed, therefore Mann-Whitney U test was performed to compare the differences between emotion regulation scores of children with and without stuttering. The effect sizes of Mann-Whitney U test results were calculated with r = Z/√n formula (Fritz, Morris ve Richler, 2012). Results: The difference between Emotional Lability/Negativity sub-dimension scores of children with and without stuttering was found to be statistically significant. Emotional Lability/Negativity scores of children with stuttering were higher than children without stuttering (U = 180,500; z =-2,567, p <.05, r=-36). Statistically significant difference was found between the Emotion Regulation scores of the groups with and without stuttering (U = 206,000; z = -2,080, p <.05, r = -. 29). The Emotion Regulation subdimension scores of children with stuttering were significantly higher than children without stuttering, which implies that, children with stuttering have lower emotional regulation. In terms of the Composite Emotion Regulation score which is the sum of the scores obtained from both sub-dimensions, statistically significant difference was found between the groups with and without stuttering (U = 197,500, z = 2,235, p <.05, r = -. 32). The Integrated Emotion Regulation scores of the stuttering group were higher than the stuttering group, which shows that emotional regulation abilities of children with stuttering were weaker than children without stuttering. Effect sizes of the statistical difference between the groups were found to be ranged from weak to moderate. Discussion: The results of the study showed that children with stuttering had higher scores in the Emotion Regulation, Emotion Variability/Negation sub-dimensions, and Composite Emotion Regulation than children without stuttering. When these results were examined, it was observed that the mood swings and anger reactions were more intense in the school-age stuttering group than the non-stuttering group. It was seen that they have difficulty adjusting adaptive emotions such as understanding emotions, empathy and cautiousness, and in general, their emotion regulation skills are weaker. These results are in line with the findings in the literature regarding emotion regulation skills of preschool children (Karrass et al., 2006; Johnson et al., 2010; Arnold et al., 2011). When assessing children with stuttering, it is important that language and speech therapists make the necessary environmental arrangements considering their clients’ emotion regulation skills. Collaboration with family and school counselors during the therapy process will positively affect the emotion regulation of the child. This is expected to increase the benefit obtained from stuttering therapy.