Development of a Prototype Questionnaire to Survey Public Attitudes Toward Stuttering: Principles and Methodologies in the First Prototype

The Experimental Edition of the Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes (POSHA-E) was designed to investigate public opinions about stuttering and stuttering compared to other attributes cross-culturally and internationally. Respondents (n = 165) rated items on stuttering in the context of eight other attributes, or “anchors,” assumed to range from negative (e.g., “mental illness”), to neutral (e.g., “lefthanded”), to positive (e.g., “intelligent”). Only those methodological results that inform subsequent development of this prototype survey instrument or the data collection processes are elaborated. The field test evaluated the efficiency of a quasi-continuous scale, order effects, scoring efficiency, and data reduction in nonprobability samples. Order effects were minimal. Problems in respondent scoring and data reduction were appreciable, but these did not appear to affect the mean scores on the POSHA-E. Results have implications for data collection methods for the population-based international project and illustrate complexities of contemporary survey research methods. This research project was carried out at the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology at West Virginia University using resources of the Department. PROJECT OVERVIEW, RATIONALE, AND MEASUREMENT ISSUES