The Unhelpful Thoughts and Beliefs About Stuttering Scale-Revised (UTBAS-R): Streamlining a cognitions checklist.

BACKGROUND The Unhelpful Thoughts and Beliefs About Stuttering Scale (UTBAS) is a widely used measure, available in 17 languages, designed to identify negative cognitions of adults who stutter. However, with a total of 198 response requirements (three subscales with 66 items each), it is long and impractical for use in many clinical and research settings. We conducted two studies. Study 1 investigated the correlation between the three subscales to determine if any of the scales could be removed. Study 2 sought to reduce the total number of items based on floor and ceiling effects, high levels of correlation with other items, and item-response (IRT) theory fit statistics.

METHOD We analysed UTBAS data from the Australian Stuttering Research Centre (ASRC) database. Participants were adults who stutter and who had completed the UTBAS as part of their participation in either a speech restructuring and/or cognitive behaviour therapy-based research trial.

RESULTS Study 1 (n = 316) revealed strong, positive relationships between subscale total scores (r values ≥ 0.88). This finding was consistent for pre- and post-treatment UTBAS scores and was statistically significant (P < 0.001). Study 2 (n = 431) revealed 7 of scale 1 items with floor or ceiling effects, and 6 items highly correlated with others. An initial IRT identified 11 items with poor fit. The top 20 items with the highest slope parameters were finally selected.

CONCLUSION Results demonstrate redundancy of the second and third subscales and 46 items of the UTBAS. We propose a preliminary revised version of the UTBAS (UTBAS-R) consisting of 20 items and one subscale.