title: Temperament and Early Stuttering Development: Cross-Sectional Findings From a Community Cohort.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to ascertain if there is an association between stuttering severity and behaviors and the expression of temperament characteristics, including precursors of anxiety.
  
  
  
  We studied temperament characteristics of a prospectively recruited community cohort of children who stutter (N = 173) at ages 3, 4, and 6 years using the Short Temperament Scale STS (Prior, Sanson, Smart & Oberklaid, 2000).
  
  
  
  Six of 131 statistical tests of association between stuttering severity and behaviors and temperament traits were statistically significant at the 5% level, which was no more than expected by chance alone.
  
  
  
  On the basis of parent responses to the STS, preschoolers who exhibited different levels of stuttering severity and behaviors did not generally express temperament traits differently from one another. Stuttering severity and stuttering behaviors were not associated with the precursors of anxiety. Overall, taking multiple tests into consideration, results show little evidence of association between stuttering severity and temperament up to 4 years of age or between stuttering behaviors and temperament up to 6 years of age.
authors.affiliation: Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, AustraliaMurdoch Childrens Research Institute, Parkville, Victoria, AustraliaDepartment of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Elaina
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kefalianos
authors.affiliation: Australian Stuttering Research Centre, University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Onslow
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) South West Peninsula (PenCLAHRC), University of Exeter Medical School, University of Exeter, Devon, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Obioha C
authors.initials: OC
authors.lastname: Ukoumunne
authors.affiliation: School of Allied Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Block
authors.affiliation: Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Parkville, Victoria, AustraliaDepartment of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, AustraliaMenzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: Sheena
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Reilly
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D010556:Personality Tests; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013342:Stuttering / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013694:Temperament