Browsing by Author "Vuori, Ella"

Study aims: The impact of stuttering on an individual's life is obvious. Although quite a lot of studies have focused on the observable factors of stuttering, the features that occur under the surface have received less attention. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects that stuttering has on the quality of life of adults who stutter. In addition this study aimed to explore the connections between demographic and stuttering related factors and quality of life. Methods: This study was carried out as a survey via Helsinki University's web questionnaire. The participants were recruited from the Association of the Finnish Stutterers. Participation was requested from adult stutterers and a total of 40 stutterers participated in the survey. The IBM SPSS Statistics 22 program was used for quantitative analysis of the data. Means, standard deviations, frequencies and percentages were computed from the multiple-choice questions. The relationships between background information and quality of life were examined using the Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test and the Spearman correlation. The qualitative analysis was based on the classification of recurring themes in the answers for the open-ended questions. Results and conclusions: Stuttering seemed to be in some kind of a relationship with all the aspects of life such as the quality and quantity of communication, social life, mental health, education and work life. The effects varied between individuals both in volume and in direction. The severity of stuttering, the age at formal diagnosis of stuttering and many demographic factors such as age, marital status and educational level were connected to how the participants thought stuttering had affected their quality of life. However gender did not seem to affect their views of their quality of life. The findings of this study increase the knowledge about stuttering's diversity and its wide-ranging consequences. These results can be applied in developing the clinical practice of stuttering therapy.