Male versus female attitudes toward stuttering

Abstract

Purpose: The study investigated the extent to which differences existed between public attitudes of males versus females.

Method: One hundred adults, 50 males and 50 females, were chosen at random from each of 50 study samples comprising a total of 3371 respondents in a database archive who had completed the Public Opinion Survey of Human Attribute-Stuttering (POSHA-S). None of the database samples included speech-language pathology students/practitioners or self-identified people who stutter.

Results: Public attitudes were very similar between male and female respondents. None of the standard POSHA-S comparisons were significantly different statistically, even though a few trends for differences were observed between the males and females.

Conclusions: Attitudes as toward stuttering of adult males and females, as measured by the POSHA-S, are very similar.

Learning outcomes: Readers of this article should be able to: describe the framework for reporting the results of the Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes-Stuttering (POSHA-S); describe similarities and differences between attitudes toward stuttering of adult males and females on the POSHA-S.