Public awareness of stuttering in Shanghai, China

Abstract

This study reports the results of an investigation of knowledge and public awareness of stuttering among laypersons in Shanghai, China. A total number of 1968 respondents answered a questionnaire including questions about prevalence, onset, gender distribution and occurrence in different cultures, cause, treatment, intelligence and heredity of stuttering. Stuttering appears to be a disorder that most people in the Shanghai area are familiar with, and for several aspects a considerable number of respondents held views that are in line with current knowledge about stuttering. For some aspects though knowledge is limited, indicating a need for disseminating scientific information on stuttering. The results of the present study are compared with a similar Belgium study.

Beliefs of teachers versus non-teachers about people who stutter

“…Findings that respondents' educational attainment is associated with more accurate beliefs were consistent with studies in the US and beyond (de Britto Pereira et al, 2008). Relative to age, previous evidence was based on samples outside the US, with some indicating that older individuals have more inaccurate beliefs about stuttering (de Britto Pereira et al, 2008;Ming et al, 2001;Van Borsel et al, 1999). However, one study indicated older individuals' beliefs are more accurate than younger respondents (Al-Khaledi et al, 2009).…”

“…Finally, because our findings regarding the association between beliefs about PWS and other variables in the model, including gender, age, and familiarity with PWS, were in conflict with some previous findings (de Britto Pereira et al, 2008;Ming et al, 2001), it would seem that these associations and their underlying mechanisms warrant further study.…”

“…Because there is some evidence that respondent age (Al-Khaledi, Lincoln, McCabe, Packman, & Alshatti, 2009;de Britto Pereira, Rossi, & Van Borsel, 2008;Ming, Jing, Wen, & Van Borsel, 2001;Van Borsel, Verniers, & Bouvry, 1999) and education (de Britto Pereira et al, 2008;St. Louis et al, 2014) are related to beliefs about stuttering, we included these as covariates in this study.…”

“…de Britto Pereira et al (2008) and Van Borsel et al (1999) compared three groups of respondents who were less than age 21, 21 to 55, and 55 and older. Ming et al (2001) included two groups who were less than 21 and 21-55. In contrast, Al-Khaledi et al (2009) compared two age groups (39 and under, 40 and above), both of whom were the parents of preschool and school-age children, which in effect may have limited the proportion of people younger than 21 and older than 55 in the sample.…”

Me, My Stuttering, and Them! Effect of Self-Disclosure of Stuttering on Listener Perception

“…21 However, later research reported less negative attitudes for adult women than men. 22 Some studies 23,24 inspected individual items in the questionnaire and found that for some items men had more positive perceptions of those who stutter than women, but the reverse was observed for other items. In one study, self-disclosure of stuttering was affected by sex bias by the observers.…”