Υoung Adults’ Assertiveness in Relation to Parental Acceptance-Rejection in Greece and in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

This study explored the relation between assertiveness and parental behavior as perceived by young adults through parental acceptance-rejection and behavioral and psychological control. Αssertiveness is a mode of personal behavior and communication characterized by willingness to stand up for one’s own needs and interests in an open and direct way. Inappropriate parenting may be associated with assertiveness difficulties and as evidence-based findings from many surveys have shown that assertive skills can be improved, it seems to be of great importance to examine the relation between assertiveness and parental rejection along with lack of support, and vice versa. In this study, assertiveness was investigated using the Rathus Assertiveness Schedule and parental behavior was studied using the Adult Parental Acceptance-Rejection/Control Questionnaire. Psychosocial personality traits and psychological control were assessed through the Adult Personality Assessment Questionnaire and the Psychological Control Scale, respectively. The sample consisted of 1,117 university students from Greek universities in Athens, Greece, and in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H). For all measures and their psychometric structure, factor equivalence for the two countries was verified through congruence coefficients and through confirmatory factor analyses. Findings showed that in respect to the Greek sample (but not the B&H sample), assertive-behavior skills are more common among men than women. Assertiveness for all participants is correlated with maternal psychological control and paternal acceptance and also with self-evaluation and worldview. Apparently, maternal psychological control and paternal acceptance-rejection seemed to be associated with young adults' levels of assertiveness to a greater degree than with the other parental behavior parameters assessed in the present research.