The Effect of Advocate Disclosure on the Perceptions of a Young Adult who Stutters

This between-group study designed weighed the effects of stuttering disclosure on the perceptions of a 17-year-old male who stutters, relative to perceived speech skills and personality characteristics. 1225 participants were included in the dataset analysis with a balanced distribution across all ranges. The conditions used in this study include (1) control condition (no disclosure), as well as experimental conditions including: (2) father disclosure, (3) male coach disclosure, (4) female teacher disclosure, (5) girlfriend disclosure, and (6) female speech-language pathologist. Participants in the control group only viewed the primary video stimulus, while participants in the experimental groups viewed one of the five different disclosure videos immediately prior to the primary video stimulus. The control condition consisted of a primary core video of a person who stutters. The other five experimental conditions consisted of various advocate videos disclosing stuttering on the 17-year-old’s behalf, followed by the core video of the young adult male reading a historical excerpt. Comparable to two previous studies detailing similar research, data results suggest the desirable effects of advocate disclosure on the perceptions of a young adult who stutters. Advocate disclosure decreases the less desirable perceptions of a person who stutters by informing listeners of their fluency disorder prior to verbal communication. In agreement with past research, results conclude that any disclosure helps improve people’s opinions of a PWS regardless of which advocate is disclosing. However, the efficacy of each advocate varies. Strengths and limitations, as well as implications for future research are detailed below