Bias of Social Work Students and Staff Against People Who Stutter and How That Affects Their Willingness to Help

Authors: Fiona So, Edrick Clermont, Angela Tao

Field of Study: Nursing

Program Affiliation: Source Project Research Program

Faculty Mentors: Rodney Gabel

Easel: 47

Timeslot: Afternoon

Abstract: A decent amount of the US population is impacted by the extremely common speech disorder: stuttering. People who stutter (PWS) encounter many difficulties in society that impact their wellbeing. The purpose of this study is to understand the biases of social work students and staff against PWS and how this impacts the willingness of the help they give. Previous studies have explored how attitudes towards PWS impact the help they receive from speech language pathologists and protective service workers. However, there is no study currently that examines how attitudes towards PWS impact the help that social workers provide. A likert scale survey was used to evaluate and interpret biased attitudes held by social workers towards PWS and if that impacts treatment provided to this population.