”Try to relax” - A survey study in Sweden among native Swedes and Arabic immigrants concerning views on stuttering

Studies performed in various countries have shown that negative attitudes and beliefs towards stuttering and People Who Stutter (PWS), which can lead to stigmatization, discrimination and social anxiety, are widespread across different societies. It is important that clinicians are aware that patients can meet different attitudes in their daily life, affecting health care seeking behavior and self-image. These can also be affected by the cultural background. Combined with different views on disorders and individualist versus collectivist societal constructions, this has clinical impacts for the treatment. For measuring these attitudes and beliefs, a questionnaire (POSHA-S) has been developed in the USA with the aim of being a worldwide instrument. We translated POSHA-S to Swedish and conducted a survey among native Swedes and immigrants with an Arabic background, as the latter group is one of the largest, and growing, minorities in Sweden. We contacted schools around Sweden for the distribution of the survey. They received either a paper version or an online version of the questionnaire. We obtained answers from 42 native Swedes, seven Arabic immigrants and 13 respondents with a background in another country. The results show that in an international comparison, native Swedes have a positive/accurate view on stuttering and PWS; notwithstanding, the attitudes towards the PWS abilities at the labor market were negative. The Arabic group holds a more negative/inaccurate view on certain items, specifically regarding the cause of stuttering and the traits attributed to PWS. The low number of Arabic respondents, however, prevents us from drawing general conclusions as the statistical power is too low

Public attitudes toward stuttering in Europe: within-country and between-country comparisons

Introduction: Epidemiological research methods have been shown to be useful in determining factors that might predict commonly reported negative public attitudes toward stuttering. Previous research has suggested that stuttering attitudes of respondents from North America and Europe (i.e., “The West”), though characterized by stereotypes and potential stigma, are more positive than those from several other regions of the world. This inference assumes that public attitudes within various regions characterized by “The West” are similar. Purpose: This study aimed to determine the extent to which public stuttering attitudes are similar or different both within regions of three different European countries and between or among five different European countries or similar geographic areas. It also aimed to compare these European attitudes to attitudes from 135 samples around the world using a standard measure. Material and methods: Using convenience sampling, 1111 adult respondents from eight different investigations completed the Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes-Stuttering (POSHA-S) in the dominant language of each country or area. In Study I, the authors compared attitudes within three different regions of Bosnia & Herzegovina, Italy, and Norway. In Study II, the authors compared attitudes between combined samples from Bosnia & Herzegovina, Italy, and Norway (with additional respondents from Sweden), and two other samples, one from Germany and the other from Ireland and England. Results: Attitudes of adults from the three samples within Bosnia & Herzegovina, Italy, and Norway were remarkably similar. By contrast, attitudes between the five different countries or area were quite dramatically different. Demographic variables on the POSHA-S did not predict the rank order of these between-country/area differences. Compared to the POSHA-S worldwide database, European attitudes ranged from less positive than average (i.e., Italians) to more positive than average (i.e., Norwegians and Swedes). Conclusion: Factors related to national identity appear to play a significant role in differences in public attitudes in Europe and should be explored in future research