The effects of self-disclosure on the communicative interaction between a person who stutters and a normally fluent speaker

Abstract

Self-disclosure is a commonly used therapeutic technique with people who stutter to facilitate self-acceptance and reduce the effects that the stigmatizing views and stereotypes held by the public can have on their communicative interactions. Although there are data on the benefits of self-disclosure from the perspective of the listener, there are no data on the value of self-disclosure form the perspective of the person who stutters. The purpose of this study was to investigate the benefit of self-disclosure from the perspective of the person who stutters in a conversational interaction using a Map task with a normally fluent speaker. The cognitive-affective variables under investigation were self-perception of stuttering severity, comfort, cognitive effort, anxiety, and benefit in a disclosed and non-disclosed condition. The speech variables under consideration in the disclosed and non-disclosed conditions were total syllables, percent syllables stuttered, and total word count. In order to measure level of stigma, the Self-Stigma of Stuttering Scale (4S) (Boyle, 2012) was used. Participants were 25 adults (18-73 years of age) recruited from the La Salle University Speech-Language-Hearing Clinics, National Stuttering Association support groups in Philadelphia and New Jersey, and through social media. The results of the investigation revealed that the participants were equivocal about the benefit of self-disclosure, and that there were non-significant differences for the cognitive-affective variables across conditions. Some positive effects on the speech variables were noted in the non-disclosed state only. All participants demonstrated overall self-stigma based on their 4S scores, but stigma was not acting as a moderating variable for the cognitiveaffective or speech variables. It was concluded that from the perspective of the person who stutters, neither self-disclosure nor overall level of self-stigma are playing a decisive role during the communicative interaction with a normally fluent speaker. The implications of these findings are discussed. vi

The role of stigma-identity constructs in psychological health outcomes among adults who stutter

“…It could be that disclosing stuttering is associated with certain, specific psychological health outcomes (e.g., quality of life, but not anxiety). Other potential explanations are that 1disclosure is associated with idiosyncratic benefits that depend on the setting, timing, interactant, and other factors, (2) the effects of disclosure vary from person to person, and (3) the benefits of disclosure may change overtime or may be associated with a long-term benefit (Mancinelli, 2019). It is clear that more research is needed to understand if and how disclosure relates to psychological health outcomes among AWS.…”

“…The other study involved an experimental task and demonstrated that disclosing stuttering to an unfamiliar listener had no relationship with the speaker's reports of anxiety, comfort, or cognitive effort. (Mancinelli, 2019).…”