Exploring the Potential for Change in Attitudes toward Cluttering in German and Polish Speech-Language Therapy Students through a Brief Educational Intervention

Introduction: This international German-Polish study was conducted for the purpose of answering two research questions. First, what is the level of cluttering knowledge and what are the attitudes of speech-language therapy (SLT) university students toward this fluency condition? Second, can the attitudes toward cluttering of SLT students be changed or improved following a relatively short educational lecture? Methods: Seventy-three SLT university students from Germany (n = 34) and Poland (n = 39) completed the Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes-Cluttering (POSHA-Cl) pre- and post-intervention in either German or Polish, respectively. As part of the intervention, participants in both groups took part in an online webinar delivered in their native language, focusing on theoretical issues related to the nature, diagnosis, and therapy of cluttering, as well as topics concerning prevention and attitude change toward cluttering. Results: Pre-intervention comparisons confirmed that participants from both countries did not differ significantly in their overall attitudes toward cluttering, however, the German group showed significantly better attitudes on the Beliefs subscore, and the Polish group on the Self Reactions subscore. Both groups showed a statistically significant improvement in their Overall Cluttering Scores following the intervention. The German group improved on Self Reactions as well as the amount and source of knowledge. The Polish group only showed a statistically significant improvement on the amount of knowledge. Conclusion: This experimental study demonstrated that it is possible to positively modify cluttering attitudes of SLT university students. It has implications for the length, content, and experiential components of interventions designed to improve attitudes toward fluency conditions.