Multidimensional assessment of assertiveness: Assertiveness, passivity, and aggressivity scales

INTRODUCTION: Assertiveness is among the fundamentals of therapeutic communication. It is a psychosocial protective factor for individuals and positively influencing others communicated with. In the literature, assertiveness is inversely related to aggressivity and passivity. It was aimed to examine the psychometric properties and interrelationships of assertiveness, aggression, and passivity scales developed for multidimensional assessment of assertiveness in this study.
METHODS: This is a scale development study. For content validity, items were evaluated by seven experts. The comprehensibility was verified by the pilot application (n=32). Data were collected from 755 medical students at İstanbul Medeniyet University in January 2022. For construct validity, both explanatory (n=423) and confirmatory (n=332) factor analyzes were used in separate groups. Data for test-retest reliabilities were collected at 4-week intervals (n=38). IBM SPSS 25 and AMOS 24 were used for analyses. Statistical assumptions were tested beforehand.
RESULTS: In each of assertiveness, aggression, and passivity dimensions; five items within three subdimensions were clustered. The subdimensions were named according to the literature: Openness, calmness, and kindness (Assertiveness); cruelty, unfairness, and furiousness (Aggressivity); introversion, shyness, and embarrassment (Passivity). The explained variances of dimensions were between 60 and 67% in EFA, and item factor loadings were between 0.49 and 0.90 in CFA. All correlations between items and scale scores were significant at 0.01 level. Test-retest reliabilities were all above 0.6 (p<001). Cronbach α internal consistency reliabilities were between 0.735 and 0.895.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Assertiveness, aggressivity, and passivity scales and their subscales can assess assertiveness multidimensionally, reliably, and validly. They can be used together or separately for assessment and research.