Bullying in Students Who Stutter: The Role of the Quality of the Student–Teacher Relationship and Student’s Social Status in the Peer Group

Children who stutter are at risk of being excluded, rejected, or bullied at school because of their impairment. The aim of the current research is to assess the relationship between students and teachers and students’ social status in their peer group and bullying dimensions in children who stutter. A total of 536 children–62 affected by stuttering and 474 in the control group–participated in the study, with a mean age of 11.42 (SD = 1.55), and 50.2% of whom were male. Among the tested models, model 2 showed better fit with statistically significant relations: χ2 = 109.02, df = 38, p <.01; CFI =.94; RMSEA =.06 [90% CI =.05,.07]; and, thus, it was retained as the best representation of the data. This study offers preliminary evidence about the role of the presence of stuttering in students as a predictor of bullying.