title: Public attitudes toward stuttering in Poland.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  People who stutter often experience negative judgments and reactions to their stuttering from the nonstuttering majority. Many are stigmatized because of their stuttering and threatened with social exclusion, placing them at risk for compromised quality of life.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this investigation was to measure public attitudes toward stuttering in Poland.
  
  
  METHODS
  A sample of 268 respondents (mean age = 29 years; range = 15-60 years) from numerous different geographic and urban-rural settings in Poland filled out a Polish translation of the Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes-Stuttering (POSHA-S).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Polish respondents displayed attitudes toward stuttering and people who stutter that were generally similar or "average" in comparison with other samples around the world from the POSHA-S database.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although generally typical of other Western societies studied, attitudes of adolescents and adults from Poland were notably different in some ways, such as in the beliefs that emotional trauma or viruses and disease can cause stuttering as well as in the self reaction that they would feel uncomfortable speaking with a stuttering person. Overall, social exclusion and stigma are as likely among Poles who stutter as among most other populations studied.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland.
authors.forename: Aneta M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Przepiorka
authors.forename: Agata
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Blachnio
authors.forename: Kenneth O
authors.initials: KO
authors.lastname: St Louis
authors.forename: Tomasz
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wozniak
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001294:Attitude to Health; D016208:Databases, Factual; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011044:Poland; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D011639:Public Opinion; D057545:Social Stigma; D013240:Stereotyping; D013342:Stuttering / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: POSHA-S; Poland; attitudes; stuttering