Measuring role entrapment of people who stutter

The purpose of this study was to explore whether people who stutter experience role entrapment in the form of vocational stereotyping. To accomplish this, 385 university students reported their perceptions of appropriate career choices for people who stutter. Direct survey procedures, utilizing the newly developed Vocational Advice Scale (VAS), were used in this study. Comparisons for the main effect of speaker status (person who stutters and person who does not stutter) were conducted using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results of this analysis suggested that the university students reported an overall perception that stuttering affected career opportunities and that 20 careers were judged to be inappropriate choices for people who stutter. Conversely, 23 careers were judged to be appropriate choices for people who stutter. Findings of this study provide initial data that supports that people who stutter may suffer from role entrapment related to career choices.

The reader will be able to: (1) provide the definitions of stereotyping, role entrapment, and how these relate to people who stutter; (2) discuss the career choices that college students perceive as appropriate and inappropriate for people who stutter; and (3) summarize the needs for future research in this area.