The relationship between bullying and stuttering in schoolchildren: scoping review.
Gislaine Aparecida Folha, Gabrielly Lemos Barbosa, Caio Rodrigues Felix and 1 others
A scoping review of 17 studies confirms children who stutter are bullied far more than peers, with lasting effects on self-esteem and social life.
SLPs are named as key to addressing this, but no intervention has been proven effective.
Key findings
1Among children who stutter, bullying incidence reaches up to 81%, and most of the 17 included studies reported elevated anxiety and lower self-esteem compared with peers who do not stutter.
2The classroom is the primary setting for bullying, and teacher-student relationships and adult awareness were identified as factors that influence a child's risk of being targeted.
3Speech-language pathologists are identified as central to identifying and addressing bullying in children who stutter, yet the included studies are predominantly cross-sectional, use heterogeneous tools, and none evaluated whether an intervention actually reduced bullying.
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What it does not show
Most included studies are cross-sectional, so they show association but cannot establish that stuttering causes bullying or that bullying worsens stuttering. Assessment tools varied across the 17 studies, making it impossible to compare prevalence rates or severity across them. Several included studies had incomplete data, which the authors note affects generalizability. Only 17 studies met criteria, and the authors note no prior literature review existed on this topic, so the evidence base is thin. No included study evaluated the effectiveness of an intervention for reducing bullying in children who stutter; the review maps what has been studied, not what works. Only four of the 17 studies were conducted by Brazilian authors, which the authors note given that fluency is a recognized specialty in Brazil.
Declared interests
Funded by the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP, grant 2025/00123-2), a state-level public research foundation. No industry funding, no conflicts of interest declared.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →