Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

1-1-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.S. in Communication Sciences and Disorders

Department

Communication Sciences and Disorders

First Advisor

Gregory Snyder

Second Advisor

Myriam Kornisch

Third Advisor

Hyejin Park

Relational Format

dissertation/thesis

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to measure whether factual self-disclosure statements with differing levels of overt stuttering severity have effect on listener perceptions regarding an adolescent female who stutters (AFWS). Method: A total of 759 adults participated in this study. Participants were gathered through a nationwide campaign to various universities via email. There were four overt severity experimental conditions (control, fluent, mild and moderate-severe); participant assignments were balanced such that each experimental condition had comparable population demographics. Each condition contained a video stimulus of an adolescent female providing a factual disclosure statement identifying herself as a person who stutters. Following the disclosure stimulus video, a core stuttering stimulus video rated as moderate-severe was shown to all participants. Following the video stimuli, participants were asked to complete a survey to rate speech skills and personal characteristics of the AFWS, using a 7-point Likert scale. Results: These data findings interpret that mild overt severity factual self-disclosure statements are preferred among listeners in speech skills of speech intelligibility (p= 0.013), speech volume (p= 0.004), and ease of listening (p= 0.004). Conclusion: Results indicate that the use of factual disclosure statements by an AFWS substantially differ from previous research based on adolescent males. As such, these data indicate a significant gender discrepancy relative to the clinical application of factual self-disclosures in young people who stutter. Limitations, strengths, clinical relevance, and future research are discussed.

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