Involvement of social and educational variables in the assertive behaviour of adolescents

Abstract

The aim of this work is to analyse how students of compulsory secondary education in Galicia (Spain) consider themselves as assertive, as well as to determine how the influence of socio-educational variables that can affect assertive capacity. A probabilistic sample, stratified by cluster, of 4,943 students was evaluated. The tools used in the study were an "ad hoc" structured questionnaire on sociodemographic variables and the assertive questionnaire of Lazarus and Folkman (1990). The descriptive analysis showed that the Galician adolescent possess more assertive behaviours (71.8%) than non-assertive (28.2%), and verified those social behaviours that lack assertiveness. An inferential analysis was then performed observing that the province (F=2.56, P=.05), school size (F=2.99, P=.03), age (F=5.36, P<.001), course (F=20.80, P<.001), and studies (F=8.18, P<.001) are significant sources of variation of assertiveness. Galician adolescents show greater proportion of assertive behaviours than non-assertive, with situational variables such as, province, school size, age, grade and studies, playing an important role in determining assertiveness.