INTRODUCTION:

Assertiveness is not what you do, it's who you are!

Shakti Gawain

The word adolescents has been derived from Latin language adolescence meaning "to grow up" and is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development generally occurring between puberty and legal adulthood (age of majority).¹

The adolescents population is 1.2 billion in total world population.²India has the largest population of adolescents in world being home to 243 million individuals aged 10-19 years.³Karnataka is third (among major states) with 68.3% of its population in the 18 years and also, the state’s adolescent population stood at 18.9% of its total population.⁴

Low self-esteem can result from various factors, including genetic factors, physical appearance or weight, mental health issues, socioeconomic status, peer pressure or bullying.

Assertiveness is a particular mode of communication. Dorland's Medical Dictionary defines assertiveness as: a form of behaviour characterized by a confident declaration or affirmation of a statement without need of proof; this affirms the person's rights or point of view without either aggressively threatening the rights of another (assuming a position of dominance) or submissively permitting another to ignore or deny one's rights or point of view. ⁵

Assertiveness training is an one of the most effective management for the client with assertive behaviour and low self-esteem. It is a particular mode of communication, a form of behaviour characterized by a confident declaration or affirmation of a statement without need of proof; this affirms the person's rights or point of view without either aggressively threatening the rights of another (assuming a position of dominance) or submissively permitting another to ignore or deny one's rights or point of view.⁶

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

1. To assess the level of assertive behaviour and self-esteem among adolescents of experimental group and control group.

2. To assess the effectiveness of assertiveness training on assertive behaviour and self-esteem among adolescents.

3. To compare the post-test assertive behaviour and self-esteem scores of adolescents of experimental group and control group.

4. To determine the association between pre-test assertive behaviour and self-esteem scores among adolescents of experimental group and control group and their selected socio-demographic variables.

OPERATIONAL DEFINATIONS:

1. ASSESS:

In this study assess refers to the measurement of the variation brought by Assertiveness training programme on assertive behaviour and self-esteem among adolescents by comparing pre-test and post-test assertive behaviour and self-esteem scores of adolescents.

2. EFFECTIVENESS:

It refers to the extent to which assertiveness training programme will promote the assertive behaviour and self esteem among adolescents which is determined by the comparison of post-test assertive behaviour and self-esteem scores of adolescents of experimental and control group.

3. ASSERTIVENESS TRAINING:

In this study it refers to an organised training program with the help of lecture cum discussion, brain storming and role play including the concept of assertive communication, basic human rights, types of response patterns, behavioural components, techniques that promote assertive behaviour and self esteem.⁸

4. ASSERTIVE BEHAVIOUR:

In this study it refers to behaviour which enables adolescent to act in his/her own best interest, to stand up for herself/himself, without undue anxiety to express honest feeling comfortably, or to exercise personal rights without denying the rights of others which is measured by Modified Rathus assertiveness schedule.⁹

5. SELF-ESTEEM:

In this study it refers to adolescents over all evaluation or appraisal of his/her own worth which is measured by using Rosenberg’s self esteem inventory scale.⁷

6. ADOLESCENTS:

In this study adolescents refer to the students in the age group of 13-16 years including both girls and boys and studying at Kalidas high school, Navanagar, Bagalkot.

ASSUMPTIONS:

1. Adolescents will be assertive.

2. Assertiveness training will enhance assertive behaviour and self esteem of adolescents.

3. Assertive behaviour and good self esteem are the tools for expressing one confidently.

HYPOTHESIS:

H₁:- There will be a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test assertive behaviour and self-esteem scores of adolescents of both experimental and control groups.

H₂: There will be a significant difference between post-test assertive behaviour and self-esteem scores of adolescents of experimental group and control group.

H₃: There will be a significant association between pre-test assertive behaviour and self-esteem scores among adolescents of experimental group and control group and their selected socio-demographic variables.

DELIMITATION:

The study is delimited to;

· Adolescents who are in the age group of 13-16 years.

· Adolescents who are studying in Kalidas high school, Navanagar, Bagalkot.

· >Assessment of assertive behaviour and self-esteem among adolescents.

MATERIAL AND METHODS:

The research design adopted for the present study is True-experimental pre-test-post-test control group design. Sample for the present study composed of adolescents in the group of 13-16 years and syudyng at Kalidas high school, Navanagar, Bagalkot. Sample size is 60 adolescents and divided into 2 groups i.e. 30 for experimental group and 30 for control group randomly. Multi-stage random sampling technique was found appropriate for this study. There are 3 divisions in the Bagalkot city namely; Old Bagalkot, Navanagar and Vidyagiri. In the first stage of sampling process, a division was selected by the help of simple random sampling technique with the help of lottery method, i.e. Novanagar. There are 7 high schools at Navanagar, and in second stage of sampling process a school i.e. Kalidas high school was selected by the help of simple random sampling technique using lottery method. In the third stage of sampling process, the subjects were selected from each class i.e. from 8^th, 9^th and 10^th standards with the help of stratified disproportionate sampling technique. There were 52 students in 8^th std, 55 students in 9^th std and 44 students in 10^th std, with the help of simple random sampling technique using lottery method. Researcher selected 20 adolescents from each class, out of which 10 students were sent to experiment group and 10 to control group using computer generated random numbers. The final format of the tool was comprised of three parts.

Part – I:

The socio-demographic data consists of information about adolescents; age, sex, educational status of parents, family monthly income, occupation of parents, religion, year of education, type of family, area of residence and attended assertiveness training previously.

Part – II:

The Modified Rathus assertiveness schedule to assess the assertiveness behaviour. There are 30 items in Modified Rathus assertiveness schedule.

Scoring Patterns:

There are 14 items for assertive behaviour(items 1, 2, 3,6,7,8,10,20,21,22,25,27,28 and 29) scoring of these items as follows; 5- very much like me, 4- rather like me, 3- somewhat like me, 2- somewhat unlike me, 1- rather unlike me, 0-very unlike me. There are 16 items for non-assertive behaviour (items 4,5,9,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,23,24,26 and 30) scoring of these items as follows (which are reversed in valence); 0- very much like me , 1- rather like me, 2- somewhat like me, 3- somewhat unlike me, 4- rather unlike me, 5- very unlike me. Thus total score for assertive behaviour range from 0-150 for 30 items.

Part-III:

The Rosenberg's self-esteem scale to assess the self-esteem. There are 10 items in Rosenberg’s self-esteem inventory scale.

Scoring Patterns:

There are 5 items for positive self-esteem (items 1, 2, 4, 6 and 7) scoring of these items as follows; Strongly agree – 3, Agree – 2, Disagree – 1, Strongly disagree - 0

There are 5 items for negative self-esteem items (items 3, 5, 8, 9 and 10) scoring of these items as follows (which are reversed in valence); Strongly agree – 0, Agree – 1, Disagree – 2, Strongly disagree - 3.Thus total score for self-esteem range from 0-30 for 10 items.

Phase 1:

Pre-test conducted to assess the assertive behaviour and self-esteem among adolescents of experimental group and control group.

Phase 2:

Assertiveness training program of 45 minutes every day provided for 7 consecutive school days for adolescents of experimental group.

Phase 3:

After a period of 1 week from the completion of Assertiveness training program the post-test was conducted using the same questionnaires for adolescents of experimental group and control group.

A sample of 6 adolescents was selected for pilot study from the area other from than main study area in Adarsha composite high school, Navanagar, Bagalkot. The coefficient of stability was completed using test- retest technique. The reliability of the test was found out by using Karl Pearson’s co-efficient of correlation formula. The reliability co-efficient for assertive behaviour scale obtained was 0.8923 and for self-esteem scale was 0.88 which indicates that the tools are reliable.

RESULTS:

Part I: Assessment of pre-test assertive behaviour and self-esteem scores of adolescents.

Section A: Assessment of pre-test scores of Assertive Behaviour among the adolescents.

LEVELS OF ASSERTIVE BEHAVIOUR		EXPERIMENT GROUP		CONTROL GROUP
	Range of Score	Frequency	%	Frequency	%
Very highly assertive	121-150	0	0	0	0
Highly assertive	91-120	10	33.33%	5	16.66%
Moderately assertive	61-90	19	63.33%	24	80%
Less assertive	31-60	1	3.33%	1	3.33%
Very less assertive	0-30	0	0	0	0

Section B- Assessment of pre test scores of Self- esteem among the adolescents.

LEVEL OF SELF-ESTEEM		EXPERIMENT GROUP		CONTROL GROUP
	Range of Score	Frequency	%	Frequency	%
Very high Self-esteem	25-30	2	6.66%	0	0
High self esteem	19-24	15	50%	16	53.33%
Moderate self esteem	13-18	12	40%	14	46.66%
Low self esteem	7-12	1	3.33%	0	0
Very low self esteem	0-6	0	0	0	0

Section C: Assessment of mean, SD and mean percentage of pre-test assertive behaviour and Self- esteem scores of both experiment and control groups.

GROUP	VARIABLES	MEAN	SD	MEAN PERCENTAGE
Experiment group	Assertive behaviour	83.23	11.93	55.49
Experiment group	Self-esteem	19.03	3.27	63.44
Control group	Assertive behaviour	80.27	10.03	53.51
Control group	Self-esteem	18.63	1.82	62.11

Part III: Evaluation of the effectiveness of the Assertiveness training programme on assertive behaviour and self-esteem among adolescents.

Section A: Comparison of level of assertive behaviour scores of adolescents in pre-test and post-test of both experimental and control group.

Levels of assertive behaviour	Experiment group				Control group
	Pre test		Post test		Pre test		Post test
	No. of respondents	Percentage	No. of responders	Percentage	No. of respondents	Percentage	No. of respondents	%
Very high assertive	0	0	9	30%	0	0	0	0
High assertive	10	33.33%	21	70%	5	16.66%	21	70%
Moderately assertive	19	63.33%	0	0	24	80%	9	30%
Less assertive	1	3.33%	0	0	1	3.33%	0	0
Very less assertive	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Section C: Effectiveness of assertiveness training programme on assertive behaviour of adolescents.

Assertive behaviour	Max. Score	Pre-test (O₁)		Post-test (O₂)		Effectiveness(O₂-O₁)
Assertive behaviour	Max. Score	Mean± SD	Mean%	Mean± SD	Mean%	Mean± SD	Mean%
Experiment group	150	83.23 ± 11.93	55.49	116.96 ± 7.59	77.98	33.73 ±11.76	22.49
Control group	150	80.27 ± 10.03	53.51	95.83 ± 7.59	63.89	15.56 ±11.17	10.38

Section D: Effectiveness of assertiveness training programme on self-esteem of adolescents

Self-esteem	Max. Score	Pre-test (O₁)		Post-test (O₂)		Effectiveness (O₂-O₁)
Self-esteem	Max. Score	Mean± SD	Mean%	Mean± SD	Mean%	Mean± SD	Mean%
Experiment group	30	19.03 ± 3.27	63.44	25.1 ±1.76	83.67	6.07 ±	20.23
Control group	30	18.63 ± 1.82	62.11	21.03 ±1.68	70.11	2.4 ±	8

Part IV: Testing of Hypothesis

Section A: Comparison of pre-test and post-test assertive behaviour and self-esteem scores of adolescents.

Group	Variables	Mean difference	Differential SD	‘t’ value (paired)	Table value
Exp. Group	Assertive behaviour	33.73	11.76	15.72	1.96
Exp. Group	Self-esteem	6.1	3.81	8.77	1.96
Control group	Assertive behaviour	15.57	11.17	7.64	1.96
Control group	Self-esteem	2.4	1.45	4.07	1.96

Section B: Comparison of the post-test assertive behaviour and self-esteem scores of the adolescents of both experimental and control group subjects.

Variables	Group	SD of post-test scores	Mean difference	‘t’ value (unpaired)	Table value
Assertive behaviour	Experiment group	7.59	21.14	10.78	1.96
	Control group	7.59
Self-esteem	Experiment group	1.76	4.07	9.25	1.96
	Control group	1.68

Part V: Association between the pre-test assertive behaviour and self-esteem scores of adolescents and socio-demographic variables of adolescents of both experimental group and control group.

Significant association was found between assertive behaviour scores of adolescents of experiment group with the socio-demographic variable age [x²=7.16, p<0.05] and year of education [x²=6.13, p<0.05] and there was no association found for other socio-demographic variables of experiment group.