Stuttering attitudes in Hong Kong and adjacent Mainland China

Abstract

The present study aims at studying the public attitudes towards stuttering in Hong Kong and Mainland China. Translated Chinese versions of the Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes–Stuttering (POSHA–S) were distributed to convenience samples in Hong Kong and Mainland China, with a total number of 175 completed questionnaires returned in each sampling region (n 5 350). Mean ratings of respondents from Hong Kong and Mainland China were similar in most comparisons; yet, a few differences were noted. Larger but idiosyncratic differences characterized the Chinese respondents compared to more than 4000 respondents from numerous countries and languages around the world in the POSHA–S database archive. Overall, they documented aspects of stereotypes and potential stigma with respect to people who stutter. While premature to provide unambiguous conclusions, results suggest that Chinese respondents have unique stuttering attitudes.

Keywords::

• Stuttering
• attitudes
• POSHA–S
• Hong Kong
• China

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Notice of Corrections

The version of this article published online ahead of print on 14 Sep 2012 contained several errors, all relating to an inadvertent reversal of two POSHA–S items, i.e., “people like me” and “a speech and language therapist” for who should help stuttering. Corrected data involved slight changes in Figures 1–3, Table II, percentile numbers in the text, as well as several other statements in the text where incorrect inferences were made or discussed. The errors have been corrected for this version.