The Effects of Assertiveness Training on the Self esteem. and Assertive Performance of At-Risk Youth. Renee Bader. Austin Boon. Anderson University

Transcription

1 EFFECTS OF ASSERTIVENESS TRAINING 1 Running head: EFFECTS OF ASSERTIVENESS TRAINING The Effects of Assertiveness Training on the Self esteem and Assertive Performance of At-Risk Youth Renee Bader Austin Boon Anderson University

2 EFFECTS OF ASSERTIVENESS TRAINING 2 Abstract Recent research has found that assertiveness training is associated with improved self esteem (Stake, Deville, & Pennell, 1983; Fox & Boulton, 2003). This study examined the effects of a weekly, skill-based, assertiveness training program on self esteem and assertiveness performance for five at-risk 9 th and 10 th grade students. The program contained three assertive communication skills: Introducing oneself, refusing requests, and disarming anger. Before beginning the program, participants completed written measures containing five demographic items and the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale (RSES; Rosenberg, 1965), oral measures about their expectations of the program and self-ratings of effective communication. Participants were video-taped while role-playing scenarios in which participants utilized the three assertive communication skills. Upon completion of the program, four participants were again recorded using the three skills in the same scenarios. All five participants also completed the RSES and gave oral feedback of their attitudes toward the program, what they learned, and self-ratings of effective communication. Results and discussion of findings and applications of the study will be discussed. The results of this study show the efficacy of using a role-play based technique to improve assertive behavior of at risk youth, as well as the efficacy of assertiveness training to improve self esteem in this population.

3 EFFECTS OF ASSERTIVENESS TRAINING 3 The Effects of Assertiveness Training on the Self esteem and Assertive Performance of At-Risk Youth Assertiveness has been defined as Standing up for your assertive rights and expressing what you believe, feel and want in direct, honest, appropriate ways that respect the rights of the other person (Jakubowski & Lange, 1978, p.2). Assertiveness can also be understood as behaviors that respect the rights of both people in an interaction. One could be unassertive, and disrespect his or her self by not standing up for his or her own rights. One could be aggressive, and disrespect the other person, by yelling at or not listening to the other. Assertiveness is the alternative that allows one to stand up for one s own rights (and thus respect one s self), in ways that respect the other person (by speaking calm and directly, listening to the other person, etc.). Jakubowski and Lange discuss many of the benefits of assertive behavior, Assertive behavior helps us feel good about ourselves and other people. It increases our self esteem, leads to the development of mutual respect with others, and helps us achieve our goals (1978, p.3). This study is particularly interested in the effects of assertiveness training on self esteem. Self esteem has been defined as a favorable or unfavorable attitude toward the self or feeling of self-worth (Rosenberg, 1965, p. 15). This is a concept related to the measure of the value or worth each person believes he or she has about him or herself. Research has shown that assertiveness and self esteem are related measures. Self esteem is positively correlated with four measures of Assertiveness (Lorr and More, 1980). Lefevre and West (1981), also show assertiveness is positively correlated with self esteem. Assertiveness has been used as a tool to increase self esteem in parents (Clifford, 1987). Studies have shown that assertiveness training has been associated with improved self esteem of adolescence (Stake, Deville, & Pennell, 1983). This study worked specifically with young women, junior or senior high school standing,

4 EFFECTS OF ASSERTIVENESS TRAINING 4 measuring performance self esteem scores before and after sixteen hours of assertiveness training. The results showed improved self esteem scores, particularly for the participants who began with lower self esteem. Fox and Boulton (2003) found improvements in the self esteem of nine to eleven year old bullying victims after an assertiveness training program. Stake and Pearlman (1980) also found that assertiveness training improved work performance for women with low self esteem. The majority of the research on the effects of assertiveness training has sampled adult populations (Hersen & Bellack, 1976; Rich & Schroeder, 1976, as cited in Pentz, 1980). More recently, researchers have investigated if the same effects hold true for child and adolescent populations. Lee, Hallberg, and Hassard (1979) found assertiveness training to significantly improve the cognitive ability of ninth-grade students who were previously rated by their peers to be aggressive. Lee, Hallberg, Slemon, and Haase (1985) found assertiveness training to significantly improve the cognitive ability of eleventh-grade students who scored the lowest on the Assertiveness Scale for Adolescents (ASA). These studies support assertiveness training as a way to enhance adolescents cognitive ability of assertiveness in social situations. However, improved cognitive ability, as tested via written measures, does not necessarily correlate with improved behavioral performance in artificial or real life scenarios (Thompson & Bundy, 1996). Therefore, it is important to note that certain studies have also investigated the effects of assertiveness training on assertive performance. Pentz (1980) showed that ninth-grade students who were previously rated by their teachers as either aggressive or unassertive improved in assertive teacher-student communication when a Structured Learning Training (SLT) model was used. Piccinin, McCarrey, and Chislett

5 EFFECTS OF ASSERTIVENESS TRAINING 5 (1985) also found significant and long term improvement (up to 2 years) thtough self reports and behavioral measures for undergraduate students who underwent assertiveness training programs. Researchers have developed a variety of training methods and techniques to improve assertive behavior. Generally, training models which involve modeling, guided behavioral rehearsal, and feedback, such as SLT, have shown to be more effective in producing significant behavioral improvement than training models involving only cognitive instruction (Pentz, 1980). The current study used such a training model, which had particular similarities with the Facilitative/Trainee-centered model described by Pentz (1980) such as a warm and empathetic nature, an informal setting, and personalized assertiveness situations for the participants. Based on the past research, we hypothesized that (H1) assertiveness training would improve the assertive behavior of participants in the training group and (H2) that the assertiveness training program would improve the self esteem of the participants. Method Participants Participants were students in the ninth and tenth grade at an Alternative High School in a mid-sized Midwest town. The small sample size resulted from a loss of 15 potential participants for various reasons: Participant's refusal to participate after giving consent (n=4), Refusal to give consent (n=3), and lack of parent s consent for video recording (n=7), leaving the class during the study (n=5). Our full participant group (n=5) gave self esteem measures. One participant declined the exit video, and so part of our sample (n=4) completed the video session for self esteem measurements. Of our participants, 60% (n=3) were female, and 30% (2) were male. The sample described themselves as 60% (n=3) white, 15% (n=1) American Indian and Black or

6 EFFECTS OF ASSERTIVENESS TRAINING 6 African American, 15% (n=1) Hispanic. Students reported living with: 60% (n=3) Mother, 15% (n=1) Father, 15% (n=1) Mother, Father and Grandmother. The school is a school designed to meet special needs of the students. The main reasons students attend this school include poor attendance from home schools, family and personal issues, behavioral issues with other students, and suspensions from other schools (personal communication, April, 2011). The student body is mainly a low socio economic group, and the school system is in transition. Nearly all of the teachers and administrators in this building were new in the fall when we began our research. There are clearly many factors of the school that impact the lives of the students. Measures and Procedure Nearly identical pre and post-test measures were given, the only difference being demographic questions included in the pre-test. The demographic information asked for whom the participant lived with, ethnic identification, and gender. Both pre and post-tests included the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale (RSES), which consists of ten questions pertaining to an individual s feelings of self worth, as a measure of participants self esteem. Items were on the RSES were Guttman scaled, and participants were instructed to select the answer that corresponded the most with how they thought of themselves: SA = Strongly Agree, A = Agree, D = Disagree, and SD = Strongly Disagree. A sample statement from the RSES is On the whole, I am satisfied with myself. The RSES has been widely used in studies which measure individual s global self esteem. From several studies which sampled demographically diverse populations alpha coefficients for the RSES were found to range from with a two-week test-retest reliability of.85 (Rosenberg self esteem scale, 2009).

7 EFFECTS OF ASSERTIVENESS TRAINING 7 Video Recordings were used to measure assertive behavior. Students were given three different situations and asked to role play them with a trained college student, who was following a branching script to remain consistent between participants. Three videos were taken for each student before and after the training program, to measure each of the three skills taught. For the skill of making introductions, participants were instructed to introduce him or herself to the mother of their new friend. For refusing requests, participants were instructed to turn down a friend s request for money. To measure the skill of diffusing anger, participants were instructed to respond to a teacher who was yelling at them for being late. Videos were rated by two individuals who were blind to the experiment s procedure but had significant experience in evaluating assertive performance from an undergraduate training course. The raters scored participants pre and post-test videos using rubrics which varied according to the different components of the three skills: introducing yourself, refusing requests, and diffusing anger. The following scores were given for each of the several features under three categories of each skill, Verbal, Nonverbal, and Tonality: 0: absent/poor, 1: present/acceptable, 2: ideal/good. Across all participants and all skills, the raters correlation of scores was.80. Results For hypothesis one, that the assertiveness training would improve the assertive behavior of participants in the training group, a repeated measures t-test was used to compare the means (p=0.26); no significance was found. Additional t-test revealed no significance by person, skill, or content, verbal, or non-verbal categories. For hypothesis two, that the assertiveness training would improve the self esteem of the participants, a repeated measures t-test was used to compare the means of the pre and post RSES; no significance was found (p=0.22).

8 EFFECTS OF ASSERTIVENESS TRAINING 8 Discussion There was no significant difference between the pre and post assertiveness measures, meaning the assertive behavior of our participants did not improve. Other studies have also failed to show a significant effect on adolescents assertive performance. Wills, Baker, and Botvin (1989) found no correlation for general assertiveness being a protective factor against substance use among teens, ages As noted earlier, Thompson and Bundy (1996) also had an assertiveness training program in which participants failed to produce significant behavioral changes. A review of factors that determine the effectiveness of assertiveness training programs highlights areas where our program could be improved, and sheds light to factors of this research that contributed to the lack of results. The first relevant factor is participant motivation and interest. Our high level of participant mortality makes it clear this was not something the students valued. Most of our participants had no answers in pre and post-test interviews when asked what they hoped to learn from the program, or what they liked or disliked about the program after it was completed. Attendance was very poor, each of our five participants attended one or at most, two of the five training sessions. This attendance issue alone is enough to explain the poor results, and even more so as it reflects a lack of investment. Pentz (1981) has identified verbal reasoning and state anxiety as participant characteristics that are likely to affect the outcome of a training program even more than program itself. We have no measures of verbal reasoning, but we know that the students as a whole struggle academically, the class was covering curriculum several years behind where they should have been. State anxiety likely also played a role, as these students faced many large stressors: parenthood, family difficulties, and a difficult school environment.

9 EFFECTS OF ASSERTIVENESS TRAINING 9 The training program itself is another relevant factor; this was the first adaptation of a program designed for college students to train at-risk youth. Many changes and adaptations need to be made, and from the results that showed no improvement in any participants verbal scores, it is likely the level of skill was not appropriate to the audience. Finally, trainer quality is a relevant factor; while the trainers for this program are experienced in the skills, they were not trained to work with at-risk youth, a population that certainly presents difficulties that require training and experience to address well. Based upon the present researchers experience within the school, including observations of student-teacher interactions, there are other factors that are likely to have hindered participants attaining significant improvement. Clearly, assertive behavior was neither modeled nor reinforced by adults the children come into contact with. On the contrary, at times aggressive behavior was modeled and passive behavior was reinforced through an emphasis on silent submission to the rules. Also, students misconduct in class is still rewarded with attention, even if that attention is negative. Lastly, the researchers became aware of moderate to severe issues many students were facing, including single parenthood, dysfunctional families, and poor adaptation to classroom learning because of long term absences from school (personal communication, April, 2011). Several changes ought to be considered and implemented in future studies working with a similar population and setting. First, to increase the external validity of the behavioral measures it would likely be beneficial to tailor the role plays in the pre and post-tests to participants personal experiences. The current study s role plays were arbitrarily decided by the researchers and may not have correlated well with participants real life experiences (Becker & Heimberg, 1988, as cited by Thompson & Bundy, 1996). Second, it is especially important that assertive

10 EFFECTS OF ASSERTIVENESS TRAINING 10 behavior is both reinforced and rewarded as much as possible within the training program by having trainers consistently model assertive behavior and give lavish praise to participants good use of assertiveness skills. This is necessary because short term training programs are already at a major disadvantage if the participants environments reinforce aggressive and unassertive behavior. Third, in order to have a successful training program, the trainers need to be wellequipped to both train the skills and work with the specific population. Although the trainers of this study had significant experience in training assertiveness skills, they were likely unprepared in the knowledge and experience for creating a strong working relationship with the at-risk youth. Lastly, it is evident from the results that participants verbal scores did not improve between the pre and post-tests. The researchers speculate that the assertive responses taught within the training program, which were originally created for an undergraduate training course, were above or unfamiliar to the level of verbal ability of the participants. The verbal content of assertive responses should be adapted in an appropriate manner for participants ease of use.

11 EFFECTS OF ASSERTIVENESS TRAINING 11 References Ah-Kion, J. (2006). Body image and self esteem: A study of gender differences among midadolescents. Gender & Behaviour, 4(1), Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Clifford, T. (1987). Assertiveness Training for Parents. Journal of Counseling & Development, 65(10), 552. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Dong, Y., Hallberg, E. T., & Hassard, J. (1979). Effects of assertiveness training on aggressive behavior of adolescents. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 26(5), doi: / Fox, C. L., & Boulton, M. J. (2003). Evaluating the effectiveness of a social skills training (SST) program for victims of bullying. Educational Research, 45(3), Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Jakubowski, P., & Lange, A. J. (1978). The assertive option: Your rights & responsibilities. Champaign, Ill: Research Press Co. Lee, D., Hallberg, E. T., Slemon, A. G., & Haase, R. F. (1985). An assertiveness scale for adolescents. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 41(1), Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Lefevre, E. R., & West, M. L. (1981). Assertiveness: Correlations with self esteem locus of control, interpersonal anxiety, fear of disapproval, and depression. Psychiatric Journal of the University of Ottawa, 6(4), Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Lorr, M., & More, W. W. (1980). Four dimensions of assertiveness. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 15(2), 127. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. McLean, K. C., & Breen, A. V. (2009). Processes and content of narrative identity development in adolescence: Gender and well-being. Developmental Psychology, 45(3), doi: /a

12 EFFECTS OF ASSERTIVENESS TRAINING 12 Pentz, M. W. (1980). Assertiveness training and trainer effects on unassertive and aggressive adolescents. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 27(1), doi: / Piccinin, S., McCarrey, M., & Chislett, L. (1985). Assertiveness training outcome and generalization effects under didactic vs. facilitative training conditions. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 41(6), Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Rosenberg self esteem scale (ses). (2009). Statistics Solutions. Retrieved March 21, 2011 from chapter/directory-of-survey-instruments/ rosenberg-self esteem-scale/. Stake, J., DeVille, C., & Pennell, C. (1983). The effects of assertive training on the performance self esteem of adolescent girls. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 12(5), doi: /bf Stake, J. E., & Pearlman, J. (1980). Assertiveness training as an intervention technique for low performance self esteem women. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 27(3), doi: / Thompson, K. L., & Bundy, K. A. (1995). Social skills training for young adolescents: Symbolic and behavioral components. Adolescence, 30(119), 723. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Wills, T. A., Baker, E., & Botvin, G. J. (1989). Dimensions of assertiveness: Differential relationships to substance use in early adolescence. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 57(4), doi: / x