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Description:
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First -year college students have many new responsibilities and challenges . They are faced with increasing autonomy and must find resources and people to help guide them . Students with disabilities face an even greater need to be independent and juggle more responsibilities , as they must disclose their disabilities to campus personnel if they need accommodations and become a self -advocate . In order to self -advocate , students must feel comfortable with being assertive .
This study examined the differences in comfort with assertive behaviors between students with and without disabilities at three different types of postsecondary institutions (junior college , 4 -year regional university , and 4 -year Research 1 university ) . Two hundred seventy -eight freshman and sophomore students completed a questionnaire concerning their comfort with many different assertive behaviors . The following three variables were examined : a ) college students' comfort with overall assertiveness ; b ) college students' comfort with verbal assertiveness ; and c ) college students' comfort with prosocial verbal skills .
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There were no significant differences between students with disabilities and students without disabilities in terms of their discomfort with assertive behaviors on any of the three variables . Males were more comfortable with assertive behaviors than females in terms of their overall assertiveness and their verbal assertiveness . Students from the 2 -year junior college were more comfortable with overall assertiveness and verbal assertiveness than students at either the 4 -year regional university or the 4 -year Research 1 university . There were no differences between groups in terms of their prosocial verbal skills .
Conclusions about the differences found in the study are reported . Recommendations for disability service providers are provided , as well as suggestions for future research . |