Self-disclosure in parents of stuttering children

A review of the literature suggested a possible relationship between low self-disclosure or avoidance of the self in parents and stuttering in the child within the same family. The present research was designed to test whether there are any differences in self-disclosure between parents of stuttering children and parents of nonstuttering children. The Self-Disclosure Questionnaire, devised by Jourard, was administered to 64 mothers and 64 fathers, half of whom comprised the control groups. The results obtained by analyses of variance indicated that parents of stuttering children do not differ from parents of nonstuttering children in their actual self-disclosure. However, findings as to why disclosure did not occur on certain items indicated that, although the parents of stuttering children do not differ in self-disclosure, they may differ in declining to disclose information when asked for it.