An assertiveness training program for indecisive students attending an Italian University.

Indecisive students often present with social skills problems, which may make academic and vocational decision-making tasks difficult and complex for them. Moreover, choices regarding one's future require the ability to gather information, to search for help and support, to stave off intrusiveness and pressures, and to communicate one s decisions. Social competencies, particularly, play a significant role in vocational guidance activities. This article presents a training program devised to augment assertive competencies in indecisive students choosing a university course of study. Intended aims and the analyses to assess the efficacy of the intervention through self-evaluation and role-play assessment are described.

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Numerous research studies have shown that academic-vocational indecision can significantly affect choice processes and can actually hinder adaptation processes (Jones, 1989; Lucas, 1993; Lucas & Epperson, 1990; Nota, 1999; Savickas & Jarjoura, 1991). Wanberg and Muchinsky (1992), who have studied the relationship between decisional status and psychological variables in depth, have considered aspects such as anxiety, locus of control, self-esteem, and self-awareness level. Their analyses have shown that indecision is associated with poor self-awareness, low knowledge of academic-vocational reality, high levels of anxiety, low self-esteem, and external locus of control.

A consistent relationship also seems to exist between social competencies and indecision. Phillips and Bruch (1988), for instance, found that shy students, both male and female, were more indecisive than those who were not shy. Furthermore, the authors determined that shyness was negatively correlated both with the expression of interests, particularly regarding those professions requiring interpersonal skills, and with the active search for information necessary to activate the decisional processes. In this respect, the authors stated that concerns that centered on the self and on passive behaviors in relational contexts (often associated as predictors of negative other-evaluations) combine to keep anxiety levels high and to strengthen the association between anxiety and indecision. Analogously, Kinnier, Brigman, and Noble (1990) observed that individuals who were more easily influenced by family pressures and who were not able to cope effectively with the interference of significant others were more indecis ive when facing problems concerning career decision making. Similarly, Arnold (1989) found that decisional levels and levels of psychological well-being were strongly correlated. Finally, Nota and Soresi (1998) highlighted how, in a group of 319 students about to choose a university course of study, those who were very indecisive also felt greater levels of discomfort in situations in which assertive behaviors might be required.

In this regard, it must not be forgotten that a career decision-making task requires the person who is making the decision to interact with many individuals who might hinder or support his or her choices. Such individuals include parents, teachers, peers, and friends, all of whom may either create barriers to or facilitate the formulation and achievement of the person's objectives (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 2000). Other potential facilitators may include people who have the necessary information regarding training offered by different universities, the staff of offices and firms who might supply information and data on prospective jobs and work opportunities, people who might collaborate on and help with career decision making, and so on. One's social skills, especially in the area of assertiveness, must be used to adequately formulate requests in different contexts, to express clearly one's wishes and aspirations, to manage pressures and resist intrusiveness, and, ultimately, to make autonomous and conscious d ecisions (Furnham & Rawles, 1994; Nota & Soresi, 1997).

These observations have led us to consider that, in addition to the usual approach to university vocational guidance, some training courses aimed at augmenting assertiveness skills could be proposed, especially to students who are indecisive due to, among other things, low social competencies.

We expected that an assertiveness training program would positively affect the social competencies of Italian high school students about to make the transition to the university. As part of this transition, these students are required to commit to a particular Italian faculty, a process analogous to choosing a major for American students. Only about 50% of Italian students who begin their university studies actually graduate. There may be several reasons for such high dropout rates, including the fact that some classes have optional attendance policies and that students are given great leeway in scheduling their required exams. This high dropout rate may also be the result, in part, of students making poorly informed decisions regarding their course of study. Thus, we predicted that improving students' decision-making abilities would be associated with a more active search for the information needed to make choices and that the presence of a more positive interior dialogue about oneself would be related to th e ability to reflect with greater insight on one's future. Higher assertiveness competencies should therefore be related to lower levels of indecision for these students.

Method

Participants

There were 18 participants, 4 boys and 14 girls, selected from a group of 995 students (358 boys, 36%, and 637 girls, 64%; mean age 17.08 years; SD = 0.18) attending their final year at high schools within the Padua province in Italy and involved in vocational guidance activities. Of these students, 433 (43.5%) attended the scientific lycee (or high school), 75 (7.5%) the classic lycee, 18 (1.8%) the art lycee, 121 (12.2%) the vocational training school, 74 (7.4%) the industrial school, 148 (14.9%) the business school, 117 (11.8%) the teacher training school, and 9 (0.9%) the building surveyor school. Of these students, 72% were from middle income families; 16% and 12%, respectively, were from lower income arid upper income families. The 18 participants selected (9 in the experimental group and 9 in the control group) were attending technical schools (i.e., training to become building surveyors, accountants, industrial technicians) and scientific lycees; all were from middle income families. The participants of these two groups, as well as the remaining 977 students, were of similar age (experimental group: M = 17.5 years, SD = 0.51; control group: M = 17.61 years, SD= 0.50; total group: M= 17.73 years, SD = 0.61).

Procedure and Instruments

The 995 students, who were involved in school-based vocational guidance activities, voluntarily completed a battery of measures during group testing sessions. Measures tapped career indecision, decisional style, decision-making self-efficacy, assertiveness, and professional interests. After these measures were scored, each student was given a personalized printout that explained his or her profile and provided suggestions and possible directions to proceed in making his or her choice. Using the instrument Ideas and Attitudes on Academic-Career Future (Nota, 1997; Soresi & Nota, 2003), which analyzes the decision-indecision dimension associated with academic-career choices, and conducting a cluster analysis on the responses obtained, we identified four typologies of deciders: (a) very decisive and sure (n = 167), (b) indecisive and unsure (n = 323), (c) fairly decisive and sure (n = 411), and (d) not very motivated to cope with the issue of choice (n = 94). These groups were differentiated by their levels of d ecisional self-efficacy and assertiveness competencies, by their markedly different decisional styles, and by the extent to which they were satisfied with their academic experience. Specifically, the indecisive and unsure students, in addition to exhibiting high levels of indecision, poor knowledge of themselves and of school-career reality, and an external locus of control, also tended to resort to passive relational styles (Nota, 1999).

From the group of indecisive and unsure students (n = 323), we selected participants to take part in our study using the following selection criteria: similar cultural background, or academic preparation, in science and technology; similar socioeconomic status; and levels of social discomfort at least one standard deviation above the mean of the entire group of 995 students. The use of these rather strict selection criteria resulted in a subsample of only 18 participants. These students were randomly assigned to two groups (one experimental and one control) of 9 participants each (2 boys and 7 girls). Analyses of variance (ANOVAs) of the pretest means revealed that there were significant differences (all in the expected direction) in social discomfort between students in the experimental and control groups and the remaining 977 students in the larger group (F values for discomfort in assertive management of a number of social situations, in accepting and expressing compliments and praise in an assertive way, in expressing negative feelings, and in coping in an assertive way with one's own limitations and social difficulties were, respectively, 14.87, 5.89, 6.55, and 7.09; for all comparisons, p < .05). The participants in the control group attended informational programs provided by the university, which enabled them to gather information on university courses and on professions that they might pursue after graduation.