Boyle Receives Funding to Investigate Disclosure of Stuttering

 Montclair State faculty member, Michael Boyle, has received the 2018 National Stuttering Association Research Fund Award to better understand the effects of disclosing stuttering publicly. People who stutter are often stigmatized due to their physical speech disruptions. As a result, they may avoid social situations and limit their communicative participation to the detriment of their personal well-being. This one-year, $2,500 grant funded by the National Stuttering Association (NSA), will help to document the perceived effects of disclosing stuttering among adults who stutter.

Specifically, this research project will use a qualitative interview approach to ask people who stutter about the advantages and disadvantages of disclosing stuttering, the goals that are accomplished through disclosure, and what specific approaches to public disclosure are perceived as most and least beneficial. The findings of the study will help advocates and professionals to support people who stutter in making optimal decisions regarding disclosure of stuttering. Ultimately, being able to make good decisions about disclosure is likely to reduce internalized and public stigma in people who stutter and enhance their level of social support and life satisfaction.

The NSA Research Fund Award provides $2,500 for one research project annually with the intent of being used as start-up or support money for new or continuing research in the field of stuttering. The title of the project is: “Being open about stuttering: What are the effects?” Dr. Michael Boyle, associate professor of communication sciences and disorders at Montclair State, and Dr. Rodney Gabel, professor of speech-language pathology at the University of Toledo are the researchers for the project.