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PubMed1985

Self-report and behavioral assertion in two groups of sexual offenders.

Role play and self-report measures of assertion were administered to a sample of rapists and child molesters as well as to groups of institutional and socioeconomic status controls. Clear differences emerged on the self-report measures, with high socioeconomic status men appearing to be the most assertive, less socially anxious, and endorsing the most liberal attitudes towards women. No differences were observed on the behavioral role plays, which required assertion in a number of heterosexual situations. There were also no differences between the groups on two related questionnaires measuring knowledge of appropriate behavior and actual predicted behavior in the same scenarios as were role played. Desynchrony between self-report and behavioral measures of assertion is not an uncommon finding with a prison population. Implications for the identification of relevant treatment targets, attempts at isolating causal variables and the relationship between attitudes toward women and assertion are discussed.

Assertiveness↗

PubMed2002

Probability of assertive behaviour, interpersonal anxiety and self-efficacy of South African registered dietitians.

OBJECTIVES: There is little information on the probability of assertive behaviour, interpersonal anxiety and self-efficacy in the literature regarding dietitians. The objective of this study was to establish baseline information of these attributes and the factors affecting them. METHOD: Questionnaires collecting biographical information and self-assessment psychometric scales measuring levels of probability of assertiveness, interpersonal anxiety and self-efficacy were mailed to 350 subjects, who comprised a random sample of dietitians registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa. RESULTS: Forty-one per cent (n=145) of the sample responded. Self-assessment inventory results were compared to test levels of probability of assertive behaviour, interpersonal anxiety and self-efficacy. The inventory results were compared with the biographical findings to establish statistical relationships between the variables. The hypotheses were formulated before data collection. CONCLUSION: Dietitians had acceptable levels of probability of assertive behaviour and interpersonal anxiety. The probability of assertive behaviour was significantly lower than the level noted in the literature and was negatively related to interpersonal anxiety and positively related to self-efficacy.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

The REACT study: randomised evaluation of assertive community treatment in north London.

OBJECTIVE: To compare outcomes of care from assertive community treatment teams with care by community mental health teams for people with serious mental illnesses. DESIGN: Non-blind randomised controlled trial. SETTING: Two inner London boroughs. PARTICIPANTS: 251 men and women under the care of adult secondary mental health services with recent high use of inpatient care and difficulties engaging with community services. INTERVENTIONS: Treatment from assertive community treatment team (127 participants) or continuation of care from community mental health team (124 participants). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Primary outcome was inpatient bed use 18 months after randomisation. Secondary outcomes included symptoms, social function, client satisfaction, and engagement with services. RESULTS: No significant differences were found in inpatient bed use (median difference 1, 95% confidence interval -16 to 38) or in clinical or social outcomes for the two treatment groups. Clients who received care from the assertive community treatment team seemed better engaged (adapted homeless engagement acceptance schedule: difference in means 1.1, 1.0 to 1.9), and those who agreed to be interviewed were more satisfied with services (adapted client satisfaction questionnaire: difference in means 7.14, 0.9 to 13.4). CONCLUSIONS: Community mental health teams are able to support people with serious mental illnesses as effectively as assertive community treatment teams, but assertive community treatment may be better at engaging clients and may lead to greater satisfaction with services.

Adult↗

PubMed2000

Therapeutic limit setting in an assertive community treatment program.

OBJECTIVE: The study examined the use of therapeutic limit-setting activities by members of assertive community treatment teams with clients who had serious mental illness. METHODS: Case managers from 40 Veterans Affairs intensive psychiatric community care teams reported their use of 25 limit-setting activities with 1,564 veterans during the first six months of treatment. The 25-item measurement scale was factor analyzed, and a standard multiple regression procedure was used to regress scale scores on clients' characteristics, the frequency of case managers' contact with service providers and others, and clients' and case managers' perceptions about the therapeutic alliance. RESULTS: Case managers relied most frequently on informal verbal approaches to limit setting and relied least on formal legal restrictions. Factor analysis of the instrument, the Therapeutic Limit Setting (TLS) scale, reduced the number of items to 20 and resulted in a five-factor solution. The limit-setting factors were verbal guidance, money management, contingent withholding of services or support, enforced hospitalization, and invocation of external authorities. The TLS and its subscales were characterized by high internal consistency, modest intercorrelation, and unique relationships with variables related to clients' characteristics, the treatment process, and the therapeutic alliance. Case managers were more likely to set limits with clients who had more extensive hospitalization histories, a representative payee, recent alcohol or drug use, more arrests, and more severe symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Case managers used a range of limit-setting strategies in assertive community treatment. Limit setting is a frequent and potentially important aspect of assertive community treatment that may be useful for comparing levels of assertiveness in assertive community treatment teams and other community-based rehabilitation services.

Assertiveness↗

PubMed2005

Assertiveness: making yourself heard in district nursing.

Being assertive is not the same as being aggressive. Assertiveness is a tool for expressing ourselves confidently, and a way of saying 'yes' and 'no' in an appropriate way. This article explores issues concerned with assertiveness in district nurse settings. It outlines helpful techniques to develop assertiveness, such as the broken record, fogging, negative assertion and negative inquiry.

Assertiveness↗

PubMed2005

Assertiveness with physicians is related to women's perceived roles in the medical encounter.

Women's self-reported assertiveness with their healthcare providers is associated with their use of cancer screening. Women who report repeating information when they feel their doctors did not hear them, asking their doctors to explain information they do not understand, or reminding their doctors about screening tests, are more likely to receive mammograms than those who report using these assertive behaviors less often. In this study, we examined women's beliefs about their role in medical encounters with their physicians and their use of assertive behaviors, in a convenience sample of 136 women receiving care at an ultrasound clinic for reasons other than pregnancy. We found that women who behaved assertively were more likely to view physicians as advisors to them in their health care and less likely to view their physicians as experts. Data are also presented on the development of a scale designed to assess assertiveness with physicians for use in studies of medical care.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Importance of physical attractiveness and social assertiveness skills in male homosexual dating behavior and partner selection.

It was proposed that a homosexual male would most often expect to date, try to date, and like a partner of physical attractiveness greater than his own. One hundred homosexual men were matched in dyads based on objective physical attractiveness ratings made of their appearance by confederates and by their scores on a social assertiveness questionnaire. The subjects were matched in pairs so that all possible combinations of high and low physical attractiveness and social assertiveness were represented. Each pair of 50 dyads experienced an actual "computer date" through an "afternoon tea dance" arranged by the experimenter. Regardless of the subject's own physical attractiveness and social assertiveness level, the largest determinant of how much he liked his partner and how much he wished to date him again was the partner's physical attractiveness. Neither the physical attractiveness nor social assertiveness of a partner, however, influenced how often a subject subsequently asked the partner out. The results suggest that in such institutions as bars and discos, male homosexuals judge prospective partners on the partner's physical attractiveness. However, other variables besides attractiveness and assertiveness work to produce long-term attraction and relationship formation.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

The moderating role of risk-taking tendency and refusal assertiveness on social influences in alcohol use among inner-city adolescents.

OBJECTIVE: Many etiological models of adolescent alcohol use concentrate on the main effects of risk and protective factors. This study examined the moderating influence of risk-taking tendency and refusal assertiveness on perceived friends' drinking as associated with alcohol use among inner-city adolescents. METHOD: Participants (N = 2,400; 54% female) completed questionnaires that included measures of risk-taking tendency, refusal assertiveness, perceived friends' drinking and alcohol use (drinking frequency, drinking amount and drunkenness). RESULTS: Main effects for perceived friends' drinking, risk-taking tendency and refusal assertiveness were found for all three drinking measures, consistent with prior work. Furthermore, significant interactions were found between (1) risk-taking tendency and perceived friends' drinking and (2) refusal assertiveness and perceived friends' drinking. CONCLUSIONS: High risk-taking tendency and low refusal assertiveness increased the impact of perceived friends' drinking on alcohol use among inner-city adolescents. This suggests that these factors are important components in preventing alcohol use.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1986

Efficacy of booster sessions after training in assertiveness.

28 subjects participated in a 6-wk. assertion training program. Of these, 22 remained in the study for a 6-mo. follow-up period, during which half received monthly booster sessions and half did not. Assignment to the booster and no-booster groups was random, with the qualification that subjects were equated on trait anxiety before training in assertiveness. Subjects filled out the Gambrill-Richey Assertion Inventory, the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Zung Self-rating Depression Scale before the 6-wk. assertion training, after this program, at a 3-mo. follow-up, and at a 6-mo. follow-up. It was hypothesized that the booster group would exhibit significant superiority on these measures at the 3-mo. and 6-mo. follow-ups. On all measures both groups significantly improved from before to after the training program with good maintenance throughout the follow-ups. There were no differences between the booster and no-booster groups on the measures of assertiveness and anxiety. However, there was a significant interaction for the depression scores when the booster and no-booster groups were compared from posttreatment to 6-mo. follow-up. The depression scores of subjects in the booster group were lower than the depression scores of subjects in the no-booster group at the 6-mo. follow-up. These results were discussed with suggestions for further research.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1996

Effects of music on assertive behavior during exercise by middle-school-age students.

The purpose of this study was to assess the association of a particular style of music and assertive behavior in middle-school-aged students during exercise. Participants were students enrolled in a public middle school (Grades 6, 7, and 8, N = 502). A statistically significant relationship was found between the number of assertive behaviors occurring while listening to fast tempo music and grades and between difference scores and grades. Difference scores were obtained by subtracting the number of assertive behaviors occurring while listening to fast tempo music from those while listening to slow tempo music. Discriminant function analysis showed the number of assertive behaviors when listening to fast tempo music and difference scores were predictive of membership by grade. The higher the more assertive behaviors were emitted when listening to fast tempo music.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1996

Objective detection of faking on role-play tests of assertion: gender differences.

The validity of role-play tests of assertiveness can be reduced by the effects of faking. Kern demonstrated that faking could be detected using assessors' global judgements. The present analysis is based on Kern's 1994 videotapes, examining the effectiveness of more objective measures. Undergraduates who were low in assertiveness and instructed to fake high assertiveness on the Idiographic Role-play Test (n = 23) emitted more statements indicative of social-evaluative concerns than the veridically highly assertive testees (n = 27). Significant gender differences in the detectability of faking were also obtained. Whereas 24 female fakers and nonfakers were differentiated via verbalizations of likability, 26 male fakers and nonfakers were differentiated via empathic-assertive statements. The implications and limitations of this method to detect faking are discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

[Development of the Japanese version of the Rathus Assertiveness Schedule].

The present study investigated the reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the Rathus Assertiveness Schedule (RAS) preparatory to study the relationship between self-expression skills and mental health status of employees at a Japanese worksite. Assertiveness is one of self-expression skills and defined as standing up for one's own rights as well as for others. RAS that the most widely used was developed by Rathus in the U.S.A. and consists of 30 items. We developed the Japanese version of RAS (J-RAS) along with a back-translation. The subjects were 173 participants of a 2-day assertiveness training course from July to December, 2001 and 364 workers in a manufacturing company in the Kyushu area. We sent the J-RAS to the 173 participants before they commenced the course, and of them 170 participants returned sufficient answers for analysis. During the course their trainers completed the objective evaluations on assertive self-expression. We compared their answers with the trainers' evaluations by the Pearson's correlation to certify the J-RAS's validity. We also mailed the J-RAS to the manufacturing workers in June, 2001. Of them, 266 workers returned sufficient answers by the end of the month. We calculated the Cronbach's alpha coefficient by them to certify the internal consistency reliability of the J-RAS. In August, 2001, we mailed the J-RAS again to 98 workers who agreed to retake the test. We studied the Pearson's correlation between the initial answers and the following ones to certify the test-retest reliability of the J-RAS, using the 98 answers of the workers who agreed to be retested. Our results found that 19 item sets, excluding Q3--7, 9, 13, 19, 20, 25, 28, had significantly positive correlation with the objective evaluations. The sum of the 19 items of the J-RAS (19-item J-RAS) had significantly higher correlations with the objective evaluation than that of 30 items of the J-RAS (30-item J-RAS). The internal consistency reliability of the 19-item or 30-item J-RAS was high, because their Cronbach's alpha coefficient was more than 0.80. Their test-retest reliability was also high, because the Pearson's correlation coefficient between the initial test and the subsequent test was more than 0.84 (ps < 0.001). Our results implied that the validity and reliability of the J-RAS was could be considered as acceptable and that the 19-item J-RAS measured the assertiveness of Japanese people more exactly than the 30-item J-RAS.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Cognitive and emotional approach to assertiveness].

Assertiveness is an individual function which allows adaptation to social interaction. It needs an heterogeneous psychological processus using behavioral, cognitive and emotional components in its expression. Dysfunction in assertiveness contributes to anxious, depressive and personality disorders, representing a frequent impairment for patients. Assertiveness was measured in a population of patients with anxious disorders (n = 33) without concomitant major depression. Rathus Assertiveness Schedule was used for the clinical evaluation, Beck Depression Inventory, Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and Coopersmith Inventory was also used for clinical measure of depression, anxiety and self-esteem. Global score to Rathus Assertiveness, correlated no specifically with all the others emotional factors. This multidimensional function would benefit to a more discriminant approach, measuring first behavioral and cognitive skills employed in social adaptation and secondly the emotional component of the processus.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Assertiveness training: does it make a difference?

The impact of assertiveness training on job-related functioning has not been evaluated. This study, conducted in a tertiary care psychiatric facility, assessed whether assertiveness training changed nurses' perceptions of assertiveness, attitudes toward power, functioning within the nursing team, and functioning within the multidisciplinary team. This article describes a four-part assertiveness training course that was found to significantly affect feelings of assertiveness.

Assertiveness↗

PubMed1992

The relationship of assertiveness to college students' safer sex behaviors.

Educational programs designed to curtail the present sexually transmitted disease (STD) epidemic emphasize the role of assertiveness in reducing personal risk. This study investigated the relationship between assertiveness tendencies and safer sex behaviors in heterosexual college students. It was predicted that assertiveness would vary positively, and nonassertiveness negatively, with three types of precautionary behaviors: caution about engaging in sexual intimacy, inquiry about a potential partner's STD risk history, and frequency of condom use. A convenience sample of 253 undergraduates (159 females and 94 males) anonymously completed a sexual behavior/demographic questionnaire and the Intimate Relationships Questionnaire (IRQ), designed for this study and involving assertive, nonassertive, and aggressive responses to scenarios relevant to safer sex. The findings confirmed the hypothesized relationships between IRQ assertiveness tendencies and safer sex practices. Gender differences were discovered on the IRQ and in the health-protective behaviors of using caution and inquiring about a prospective partner's STD risk history. Implications for STD prevention strategies are discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed1985

Differential reactions to assertive and communicative acts of toddler boys and girls.

34 children were observed in infant play groups. 2 sets of infant behaviors were coded: assertive acts and attempts to communicate with adults. No sex differences were observed at 13 to 14 months in any of these behaviors. However, adults attended to girls' assertive behaviors far less of the time than to boys' assertive behaviors. They attended more to girls' less intense communication attempts and to boys' more intense attempts. When 29 of the same children were observed in toddler play groups no more than 11 months later, there were sex differences in behavior. Boys were more assertive; girls talked to teachers more. Teachers no longer differentiated their responses to boys and girls. Peers reacted more to boys' assertive behavior than to girls.' We hypothesized that caregivers may use stereotypes to guide their reactions to infants because infant behavior is ambiguous. For the toddlers, behavior had become more defined, and caregivers reacted to the behaviors. By using the sex stereotype to guide their reactions to younger children, the caregivers may have perpetuated the stereotype.

Assertiveness↗

PubMed1981

Gender by assertiveness interaction in delayed auditory feedback.

The College Self-Expression and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scales were given to 144 undergraduates. High (N; 10 M; 10 F) and Low (N; 10 M 10 F) Assertiveness Ss were given a DAF test with a 'Phonic Mirror" and the Stroop test (naming the color of a word printed in a different color). DAF performance did not differ among the 4 subgroups (M and F, High and Low Assertiveness), except that Low Assertiveness women showed significantly greater DAF interference than the other subgroups. There was no significant correlation between the continuous interference of the DAF vs the discontinuous of the Stroop test. The difference may reside in the time available and the consequent reduction in anxiety, for the next stimulus in the Stroop test. These data show that, under certain circumstances, personality factors such as assertiveness can interact with gender to affect speech fluency and production. The ability to overcome feedback-related disfluencies in speech may be partially aided by improvement in self-concept or specific training in such behaviors as assertiveness, and this may be more important for females than males.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed2001

Maintaining contact with people with severe mental illness: 5-year follow-up of assertive outreach.

BACKGROUND: Assertive outreach is a central strand of Government mental health policy in England. Are different long-term models of mental health care which include assertive outreach associated with different service user outcomes and cost? METHOD: We conducted a multi-site 5-year follow-up study of people with severe mental illness. From 0 to 18 months all three sites had Intensive Case Management (ICM) teams practising assertive outreach. From 18 to 60 months one team sustained ICM, one team merged and another was disbanded. All 131 original ICM team clients were the study participants. Outcome was measured in terms of sustained engagement with statutory mental health services, psychiatric symptoms, social functioning, resource use and cost. RESULTS: All 120 live participants were traced. Only four people had no service contact; when contacted by a researcher they appeared to be coping well. No incidents of serious violence were discovered. No differences existed between teams in the mean total symptom or total social functioning change scores at follow-up, after controlling for baseline differences. No differences existed in mean cost between teams during the first 18 months. Mean (standard deviation) annualised costs varied considerably in the 18-60 month period: sustained team Pound Sterling13,734 (10,820); integrated team Pound Sterling11,037 (13,603); disbanded team Pound Sterling5,742 (7,007) (F=4.4, 105 df, p=0.015). CONCLUSION: Continued specialist assertive outreach service models have higher costs than non-specialist services for no apparent benefit. In the long term new assertive outreach services should have procedures in place to transfer people to lower intensity and lower cost care.

Case Management↗