Development of a Psychometric Measure of the Propensity to Consciously Control and Monitor Speech Production

A study of the mechanism for intergenerational transmission of gender roles in single-parent families

The divorce rate in China is rising yearly, and the concept of marriage is changing, triggering many social topics related to single parents. Among them, gender-awareness education for children in single-parent families is particularly worthy of attention, as there has been insufficient exploration of how parents transfer their gender role concepts to their children. This study conducted in-depth interviews with 58 single parents and children from 29 families in Suzhou and constructed the mechanism for intergenerational transmission of gender roles in single-parent families based on grounded theory. It found that single parents' gender stereotypes, the starting point of the intergenerational transmission mechanism, have been diluted. It affords them a more enlightened attitude towards child-rearing style, and they expect more equality in the gender role of their offspring. However, in some parents' actual parenting process, when the children's sexualization behaviours exceed their acceptance range, they will communicate with children in an authoritative and didactic way to "correct" the children's behaviour. In addition to direct verbal instruction, parents' expectations of their children's gender roles will be implicitly conveyed through various parent-child interactions in daily life to affect the formation of their children's gender roles. In the intergenerational transmission of gender roles, external people (such as grandparents, teachers and peer groups) have horizontal socialisation effects on children to modify or strengthen the results of gender education from their parents. Under the comprehensive influence of the above factors, the children's gender roles are finally determined. These studies expand previous theories and studies and have significant theoretical and practical implications.

Complex working memory in adults with and without stuttering disorders: Performance patterns and predictive relationships

PURPOSE

Available studies of working memory (WM) in speakers who stutter tend to rely on parent report, focus on phonological WM, or measure WM in combination with other processes. The present research aimed to: (1) compare complex WM in adults who stutter (AWS) and adults who do not stutter (AWNS); (2) characterize group performance patterns; and (2) determine whether WM predicts stuttering severity.

METHODS

Eighteen AWS and 20 AWNS completed parallel verbal and spatial span tasks in which to-be-remembered items were interleaved with a distracting task across varying set sizes. Dependent variables included the number of correctly recalled items, accuracy on distraction tasks, and detailed analyses of item-level responses. We further examined whether span scores predicted subjective and objective measures of stuttering severity.

RESULTS

Relative to AWNS, AWS showed poorer recall, specifically on short set sizes in the spatial task. Groups performed similarly on distraction tasks and showed comparable error patterns. Predictive relationships differed by span task and severity measure. Lower verbal span scores predicted greater stuttering impact and more overt stuttering behaviors; lower spatial span scores predicted lower impact and was unrelated to overt behaviors.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings suggest that AWS differ subtly from AWNS in WM performance. Group differences became more apparent under certain task conditions but could not be attributed to specific underlying processes. Data further indicated a complex relationship between WM and stuttering severity. Overall, results corroborate previous studies linking stuttering to domain-general weaknesses, but highlight the need for additional research to clarify the nature of this relationship.

Cross-cultural adaptation of the Brazilian version of the Speech-Specific Reinvestment Scale - SSRS

PURPOSE

To present the cross-cultural equivalence of the Brazilian version of the Specific Reinvestment Scale in Speech - SRRS through its cultural and linguistic adaptation.

METHODS

After the SSRS was translated into Brazilian Portuguese, the back-translation was done and the items were compared. Discrepancies were modified by consensus of a committee of SLPs. The SSRS, named "Escala de Reinvestimento Específico na Fala - EREF", has 39 questions and six alternatives in the answer key: "strongly disagree", "disagree", "slightly disagree", "slightly agree", "agree" and "strongly agree". The mean score is computed by the sum of each subdimension. Negative items may not be included in the EREF scoring or need reversed coding process before using them. For cultural equivalence, the EREF was applied to a total of 74 professionals working in an activity involving communication with the public, speakers of Brazilian Portuguese as a first language, with an extra item in the answer key - "not applicable" - to identify issues that might not have been understood or were not appropriate for the target population and Brazilian culture.

RESULTS

The scale was initially applied to 56 participants, thirteen of whom found it difficult to complete 27 questions. After adaptation of those sentences, the modified EREF was applied to 13 more participants and no further cultural and / or conceptual barriers were found.

CONCLUSION

Cultural equivalence between the SSRS and its translated version to Brazilian Portuguese - EREF was verified. The next steps for the EREF validation for Brazilian Portuguese will be carried out.