An exploratory factor analysis of action responses to stuttering anticipation

•How individuals respond to stuttering anticipation drives clinical decision-making.•An exploratory factor analysis was conducted using responses from the Stuttering Anticipation Scale (SAS).•The factor structure of the SAS includes three latent variables: avoidance, physical change, and approach responses. We previously introduced theStuttering Anticipation Scale (SAS; Jackson, E. S., Gerlach, H., Rodgers, N. H., & Zebrowski, P. M. (2018). My Client Knows That He’s About to Stutter: How Can We Address Stuttering Anticipation during Therapy with Young People Who Stutter? Seminars in Speech and Language, 39, 356–370) – a non-standardized self-report measure for children, teens, and adults who stutter (CWS, TWS, AWS) that quantifies how often they engage in 25 commonly reported action responses to anticipation. The purpose of this study was to leverage the SAS to explore the factor structure of action responses to stuttering anticipation. A total of 121 people who stutter completed the SAS online (27 CWS, 40 TWS, 54 AWS). We used exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to determine the underlying latent variables within the 25 SAS items that characterize how people who stutter respond to anticipation. A three-factor model was most appropriate for the data with regard to factor loadings and other model fit indices. The three factors were named: avoidance (17 items), physical change (4 items), and approach (4 items). Understanding these three types of action responses to anticipation can help guide clinical decision-making by providing a novel framework for clinicians and their clients who stutter to discuss how the client tends to respond to anticipation, and explore ways to facilitate productive responses to anticipation.