Schoolteachers’ beliefs and self reactions towards stuttering in Israel

This study aims to: (a) examine beliefs and self reactions of schoolteachers towards stuttering and people who stutter using the Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes-Stuttering (POSHA-S) questionnaire and (b) examine how background variables (age, gender, education, and marital status) affected teachers’ attitudes, beliefs and knowledge. A total of 202 teachers from Israel filled out the POSHA-S questionnaire using the Hebrew online version. Overall, Israeli teachers’ beliefs, and self reactions were consistent with the data in the world database of POSHA-S. Participants’ Overall Stuttering Score (OSS), as well as the items examining teachers’ attitudes towards traits and personality of people who stutter, helping people who stutter, and attitudes towards people who stutter were higher (i.e., more positive) relative to the same components existing in POSHA-S database for the rest of the world. Lack of knowledge regarding the causes of stuttering was revealed. OSS and Self Reactions were found to be related to education. Significant positive correlations were found across POSHA-S components which linked knowledge scores and the beliefs of teachers about traits of people who stutter. The impact of education indicates that attitudes are influenced by exposure to knowledge sources and/or interaction with a variety of people which characterizes Israeli society. The results are expected to serve as a basis for future intervention programmes aiming to improve teachers’ attitudes towards people who stutter.