A Network Analysis of Attitudes Toward People Who Stutter From the Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes–Stuttering Database

PURPOSE: Network analysis was used to examine the beliefs about and behaviors toward people who stutter using data from the Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes-Stuttering (POSHA-S) Database. METHOD: Data from 5,044 people in the United States who were native English speakers, did not stutter, and who completed every question on the Stuttering section of the POSHA-S were used to create a network. Nodes in the network represented the 39 items on the POSHA-S, and edges connected nodes based on the direction and strength of the correlation in the response of two items/nodes. RESULTS: Node strength was used to identify five nodes that could be targeted in future interventions. A community detection analysis revealed five communities (i.e., subsets of nodes that tended to cling together) instead of the eight components and two subscales of the POSHA-S. Each community contained at least one belief and several self-reactions, with the various components of the POSHA-S tending to concentrate in a given community. CONCLUSIONS: The difference between the component/subscale structure of the POSHA-S and the observed communities may reflect the difference between how experts view a phenomenon and how everyday people view the same phenomenon. The observed community structure and nodes high in strength have several implications for those designing a public education campaign to reduce the stigma toward people who stutter. Several other ways that network analysis can be used to inform efforts to reduce the stigma toward people who stutter are also discussed.