University Students' Self-assessment of Communication Skills in Public Speaking

To compare and correlate the self-assessment of communication competence, vocal signs and symptoms, and autonomic dysfunction of university students in public speaking.

Observational, cross-sectional, analytical, prospective study, approved by the Research Ethics Committee under no. 5.543.980, with 122 undergraduate students over 16 years old: 93 women (mean age 21.88 years) and 29 men (mean age 21.82 years), belonging to a public university's Institutional Undergraduate Research Program. All responded to the Self-Assessment of Communication Competence (SACCom), the Vocal Signs and Symptoms Questionnaire (VSSQ), and the Questionnaire of Autonomic Dysfunction (QAD). Data were statistically analyzed to compare the protocols and assess associations between variables.

The protocol results did not differ regarding the number of times students presented their research, whereas all protocols' total scores differed between sexes: SACCom (women = 13, men = 16, P = *0.002), VSSQ (women = 3, men = 1; P = *0.02), and QAD (women = 12, men = 6, P = *0.001). The results indicate worse self-assessment among women. SACCom was negatively correlated with VSSQ (r -0.35, P = 0.000) and QAD (r -0.371, P = 0.000), indicating that the better the students self-assess, the fewer the vocal signs and symptoms and signs of autonomic dysfunction.

Age and experience in presentations did not influence self-assessments. However, female students self-assessed their communication skills in public speaking worse than males, with more vocal signs and symptoms and signs of autonomic dysfunction. In the overall group, the better the students self-assessed, the fewer the vocal signs and symptoms and signs of autonomic dysfunction.