Self-Reported Assertiveness of Child Parliament Participants and Non-Participants in Primary Schools, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

The studycompared assertiveness of 42 adolescents participating in the child parliament (P) and 42 nonparticipants (NP), aged 14-16 years selected using purposive sampling.Quantitative researchmethoda descriptive survey designwas used to compare the assertiveness of two naturally occurring independent groups. A two-way ANOVA was used to examine the difference in the mean assertiveness scores of P and NP. The relationship between age and years of participation in the child parliament and their assertive behaviour was computed using Pearson correlation.The results of a 2 x2 (participation by sex) Analysis of Varianceon the assertiveness scale showed that the mean difference in assertiveness scores for participation (the first main effect) and pairwise comparisons of the mean assertiveness scores of the two groups were found to be significant. However, the mean difference in assertiveness of males and females (the second main effect-sex factor) and interaction (participation and sex) was not statistically significant. There was statistically significant correlation between adolescents’ years of participation in the child parliament andassertiveness. However, the correlation between age and assertiveness for P group was very weak, and not statistically significant.To conclude, adolescents participating in the parliamentare more assertive than none participants