Social anxiety and life impact in adults who clutter and stutter: a comparative study with pure stuttering

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is frequently reported to coexist with stuttering; however, its occurrence in the context of cluttering remains largely unexplored. This study determined whether SAD co-occurs in individuals with disfluency after differentiating those with cluttering with stuttering from those with stuttering alone. Forty participants aged ≥18 years with a chief complaint of stuttering-like disfluencies (SDF) were included. Based on established criteria, participants were categorized into two groups: cluttering with stuttering (n = 14) and stuttering alone (n = 26). All participants completed Japanese versions of the following: Modified Erickson Communication Attitude Scale (S-24-J), Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS-J), Brief Unhelpful Thoughts and Beliefs About Stuttering Scale (UTBAS-6-J), and Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering for Adults (OASES-A-J). Although mean scores on the LSAS-J and other questionnaires did not differ significantly between the groups, correlational analyses revealed distinct psychological profiles. A significant correlation between SDF frequency and OASES-A-J Section 1 scores was observed only in the stuttering-alone group. These findings indicate that while SAD can co-occur in both groups, the relationships between objective severity, communication passivity, and nonadaptive cognition differ. This underscores the distinct clinical natures of cluttering with stuttering and pure stuttering, highlighting the need for a nuanced, tailored approach to their assessment and clinical management.