Quality of life in mothers of school-aged children who stutter: A Turkish study

Purpose This study sought to understand whether the quality of life of mothers of school-aged children who stutter was different from that of mothers whose children do not stutter in Türkiye.Method A between-subjects cross-sectional group design included mothers of children aged 6–12 years with stuttering (n = 62, experimental group) and without stuttering (n = 62, control group). A descriptive information form and the World Health Organization Quality of Life, short form, Turkish version (WHOQOL-BREF-TR) were used. The WHOQOL-BREF-TR scale contains four dimensions: physical health, mental health, social health, and environmental health.Result The mean scores for the experimental group was 49.23 SD 11.661 for physical health, 46.07 SD 12.743 for mental health, 49.92 SD 10.013 for social health, 50.20 SD 11.199 for environmental health, and 47.70 SD 10.122 for the total score. The experimental group scored significantly lower than the control group across all WHOQOL-BREF-TR subdimensions (p < .001).Conclusion This study found that Turkish mothers of children with stuttering have a lower quality of life compared with mothers of children without stuttering. Enhancing collaboration with therapists and strengthening social support systems will be beneficial for understanding and alleviating the challenges experienced by mothers.