Assertiveness training with high school students

Baseline assessments of assertiveness were determined prior to instituting a 10-week assertion training program with 85 ninth-and twelfth-grade adolescents. Initial self-report measures of assertiveness indicated that females experienced significantly more discomfort in assertion situations than males. Baseline measures also revealed that while assertiveness increased with age in males, it decreased over grade levels with females. Data from the baseline assessments were used to structure an intervention program in which subjects were randomly assigned to groups which received assertiveness training twice a week for one hour. Prior to data analysis, each group was classed as either high- or low-cohesive. The results indicated a significant increase in assertiveness in the highly cohesive training groups on a behavioral measure of assertiveness.