Significant Variables Associated with Assertiveness Among Hispanic College Women.

Undergraduate and graduate Hispanic and non-Hispanic women enrolled in teacher education and counseling courses at the University of Texas at El Paso completed the Rathus Assertiveness Schedule. Scores were compared to age, marital status, ethnicity, birth order, academic classification, and prior history of counseling. Results indicated that academic classification and ethnicity were significant variables associated with assertiveness levels.

Research on assertiveness has focused primarily on gender differences (Gay, Hollandsworth, & Galassi, 1975; Hollandsworth & Wall, 1977; Kern, 1996; Kern, Cavell, & Beck, 1985; Kimble, Marsh, & Kiska, 1984). Other assertiveness research has focused solely on women (Goldfried, & Goldfried, 1979; Wolfe & Fodor, 1977). Few studies, however, have addressed factors such as age, ethnicity, and prior history of counseling and their influences on Hispanic women's assertiveness levels (Comas-Diaz & Duncan, 1985; Melgoza, Roll, & Baker, 1983; Roll, McClelland, & Abel, 1996; Soto & Shaver, 1982; Yoshioka, 1995). Therefore, additional research in this area seemed warranted.

The present study examined six variables including age, marital status, ethnicity, birth order, academic classification, and prior history of counseling, to determine if any would be significantly associated with assertiveness levels among Hispanic college women. The following is a brief review of the literature investigating the influence of these variables on assertiveness in women.

Age. Research regarding how an individual's age may affect assertiveness has been very limited. Roebuck (1983) reviewed the literature on issues in aging and women and found that despite negative stereotypes, ignorance, and lack of social support, women have managed to cope with major social changes and continue to have greater longevity than men. In this study, it was hypothesized that older women may exhibit more assertive behavior as a result of coping with major social changes. In contrast, other studies have found that assertiveness may decrease with age. Elderly women may lack assertiveness because they feel powerless in their position. At an earlier age, they may have felt in control of their lives, energized, and experienced economic stability. However, in the process of aging, women may have acquired losses in many of these areas (Corby, 1978). Apter (1996) interviewed a group of 80 mid-life women and classified them into four groups (traditional, innovative, expansive, and protestors) according to various characteristics. Women described as being traditional, innovative, or expansive all demonstrated characteristics of self-responsibility and autonomy, whereas women who were described as protestors refused to accept the implications of midlife and failed to demonstrate assertive or autonomous behaviors in their daily lives.

Marital Status. Many women seek counseling related to interpersonal relationship needs, and many of these women place their spouse's needs ahead of their own (Eichenbaum & Orback, 1983), often experiencing stress from the demands of the caregiver role, especially at the expense of personal fulfillment (Nelson, 1996). No specific studies were found, however, that examined the relationship between assertiveness and marital status.

Ethnicity. In their study of Mexican-American and Anglo-American college students, Kimble, Marsh, and Kiska (1984) found that Mexican-American women were less assertive. Comas-Diaz and Duncan (1985) found that Puerto Rican women exhibited difficulties in asserting themselves uniformly because they were aware of the differences between Puerto Rican norms and Anglo assertiveness norms. In a study identifying new sets of criteria to measure assertiveness in low-income minority women, Yoshioka (1995) found that fewer Hispanic women believed that they have the right to act assertively with friends and family as compared to African American and Anglo women. In addition, a larger proportion of the Hispanic group reported that they believe they never have the right to behave assertively. Sue, Sue, and Ino (1990) examined assertive behavior in a sample of Chinese and Caucasian female students. They found that Chinese-American women were just as assertive as Caucasian women and that ethnicity did not significantly affect Chinese-Americans' in their roles.

Two studies (Melgoza et al., 1983; Roll et al., 1996) disagreed as to the importance of ethnicity in determining whether a significant relationship actually exists between assertiveness and ethnicity for women.

Birth Order. Kimble et al. (1984) found no significant relationship between birth order and assertiveness in women, although first-born females did demonstrate more assertive behavior than later born children. Melillo (1983) studied possible differences between birth order and personality characteristics among a group of women who held doctoral degrees. She found that a statistically significant number of female students admitted to doctoral programs were either an only child or were the oldest sibling in the family. Findings also indicated that there was no significant difference between actual birth order and perceived birth order, indicating that achievement in women does not appear to be dependent on whether the woman was treated as an only or oldest child in the family.

Academic classification. There was a paucity of studies related to differences in academic classification and assertiveness in women.

Prior history of counseling. Alden, Safran, and Weidman (1978) stated the importance during counseling of distinguishing between assertive, aggressive, and non-aggressive behaviors due to the tendency for women to associate assertiveness and aggression with masculinity. Accordingly, Eisler, Hersen and Miller (1975) designed an intervention to facilitate personal growth in women which included assertiveness, problem-solving, and communication. The curriculum model was evaluated based on three implementations with two populations of college women. Results indicated that women became more self-identified, confident, autonomous, and competent in many aspects of their lives after completing the curriculum model.

In a study comprised of 79 women, Linehan, Goldfried and Goldfried (1979), compared therapy designed to modify cognitive appraisals of the value of assertive behavior with a program designed to teach overt assertiveness skills. Both strategies were also compared to a treatment which combined skill training with cognitive change techniques. Results indicated that the strategy of combining skill training with cognitive change techniques was the most effective in increasing assertiveness and reducing emotional discomfort in situations which call for assertive behavior.

Another study compared three approaches in the treatment of assertive difficulties in 64 women in an outpatient clinic. Wolfe and Foder (1977) compared modeling-plus-behavior rehearsal (BT), modeling-plus-behavior rehearsal-plus-rational therapy (RBT), and a consciousness-raising group (CR) to a control group. Findings suggest that BT and RBT made significant improvements on measures of assertiveness, whereas CR did not show significant differences.

In summary, various factors including age, ethnicity, birth-order, academic classification, and various counseling interventions appear to have an influence, on the level of assertiveness in women. However, the findings noted above are generally inconclusive and occasionally confounding. As noted, no clinical studies of academic classification or marital status and assertiveness were found. Therefore, a lack of clarity exists as to the degree to which assertiveness may or may not be influenced by such predictors as age, marital status, ethnicity, birth order, academic classification, and prior history of counseling. Continuing research appears to be warranted.

Method

A total of 87 female college students currently enrolled in undergraduate teacher education and graduate counseling courses at the University of Texas at El Paso served as voluntary participants.

Instrument

Participants completed a demographic information form which captured the following data: age, marital status, academic classification, ethnicity, birth order, and prior history of counseling. The Rathus Assertiveness Schedule (RAS) was completed by each participant as a measure of assertiveness. The RAS has demonstrated moderate test-retest reliability (.77) and high validity (.93) (Rathus, 1973). This instrument has been used in the majority of studies reviewed in this study (Fiedler et al., 1978; Kimble et al., 1984; Linehan et al., 1979; Wolfe et al., 1977).

Procedure

Participants were asked to complete consent forms, the demographic data sheet, and the Rathus Assertiveness Schedule. A proctor gave verbal and written instructions before participants completed the RAS. Participants were told to direct any questions to the proctor.

Treatment of the Data

Data derived from the RAS were categorized into non-assertive, mildly assertive, assertive, and strongly assertive groups and were treated as nominal and inferential. A chi square test was used in analyzing the data to determine if there were significant differences between levels of assertiveness and participants' age, birth order, ethnicity, academic classification and prior history of counseling. Level of significance was p 0.05.

Results

Demographics 

Regarding ethnicity, 17 (20%) were Anglo, 65 (75%) were Hispanic, and three (3%) indicated they were of mixed ethnicity. Two (2%) did not indicate their ethnicity. Of the 87 participants, 29 (33%) were between 20 and 24 years of age. 21 (24%) were between 25 - 29 years of age, and 35 (40%) were 30 years or olden Two (3%) did not report their age.

Forty-three (49%) were single, 37 (43%) were married and seven (8%) were divorced. In terms of academic classification, 62 (71%) were undergraduates and 24 (28%) were graduate students. One participant (1%) did not indicate her classification.

Regarding birth order, twenty (23%) were first-born, 28 (32%) were middle children, and 21 (24%) were last-born. Nine (10%) indicated that they were an only child. For those who reported that they had four siblings, children in the second and fourth ordinal positions were considered as "other." Nine (10%) of participants categorized themselves in this manner.

Participant's prior history of counseling included 65 (75%) reporting no prior history, 16 (18%) indicated they had received six months or less of counseling, and 5 (6%) stated they had received one year or more of counseling. No participants reported receiving between six months to one year of treatment. On the RAS, 27 (31%) of the participants were classified as non-assertive, 38 (44%) fell in the mildly assertive range, 21 (44%) were assertive, and only 1 (1%) was classified as strongly assertive.

Findings

Chi square analysis of RAS scores revealed no significant differences for level of assertiveness as compared to age ([x.sup.2]=11.03416, p=0.27), marital status ([x.sup.2]=9.45453, p=0.15), birth order ([x.sup.2]=14.35425, p-0.28), and prior history of counseling ([x.sup.2]=4.96136, p=0.84). However, significant differences were found for assertiveness level as compared to both academic classification ([x.sup.2]=89.03416, p=0.02) and ethnicity ([x.sup.2]=49.42608, p=0.01). Undergraduates were found to be generally non-assertive or only mildly assertive. Hispanics scored predominately in the non-assertive or mildly assertive range. However, caution needs to be used when interpreting these results as 11 of 16 cells had a value less than five, which is the required frequency per cell.

Discussion

This study examined the variables of age, marital status, ethnicity, birth order, academic classification, and prior history of counseling to determine if there was a significant relationship among these variables and the level of assertiveness. Age, marital status, birth order, and prior history of counseling were not found to be significant variables among various ranges of assertiveness. However, significant differences existed between levels of assertiveness for both academic classification and ethnicity,

Undergraduates scored primarily in the non-assertive or mildly assertive range while graduate students scored uniformly across the non-assertive, mildly assertive and assertive ranges. Sixty-two participants (71%) were undergraduates which may account for the significant results. A more uniform sample may have produced different results.

Of the 65 Hispanic participants, 23 (35%) scored in the non-assertive range compared to 4 (24%) of the 17 Anglo participants. Twenty-seven (42%) of Hispanic participants were classified as mildly assertive as were 8 (47%) of Anglo participants. Fifteen (23%) of Hispanic participants scored in the assertive range as did 5 (29%) percent of Anglo participants. The three (3%) participants reporting being of mixed ethnic origin all scored in the mildly assertive range. In essence, 77% of the Hispanic participants scored in either the non-assertive or mildly assertive range while 76% of the Anglo participants scored in the mildly assertive or assertive range. These results support previous studies which found that Hispanic women have difficulties behaving assertively (Comas-Diaz et al., 1985; Kimble et al., 1984; Soto et al., 1982).

Implications

In this study, the significance of academic classification on the level of assertiveness has implications for counseling. Most of the undergraduate participants scored in the non-assertive range whereas graduate students scored uniformly in all three assertiveness ranges demonstrating a tendency toward a higher level of assertiveness. This suggests that the level of assertiveness may tend to increase as one becomes more educated. Accordingly, specific assertiveness training interventions may need to be directed toward undergraduate women.

Similarly, the significance of ethnicity on level of assertiveness appears to have important implications when counseling minorities. Hispanic women may feel somewhat powerless (Sue et al., 1990). Despite a high level of education, Hispanic women may continue to behave in less assertive ways than their non-Hispanic female peers.

Additionally, future studies should focus on the role that continuing one's education may play in increasing assertiveness in Hispanic women. Of importance to educators and counselors would be the comparison of assertiveness among graduate Hispanic women with the assertiveness of less educated Hispanic women. The implication of this study is that issues of education and ethnicity in the understanding and treatment of Hispanic college women.

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Geraldine Rodriquez, M.A., Steve W. Johnson, Ph.D., and Don C. Combs, Department of Educational Psychology and Special Services, College of Education, University of Texas El Paso.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Dr. Steve W. Johnson, Department of Educational Psychology and Special Services, University of Texas El Paso, 500 W. University Avenue, El Paso, TX 79968-0567.