Adolescent Assertiveness Assessment Scale

1. Abstract

The Adolescent Assertiveness Assessment Scale (AAA-S; de Lima et al., 2024) is a self-report psychometric instrument designed to evaluate assertiveness skills in adolescents aged 12 to 18 years. Assertiveness constitutes a core dimension of social competence, defined as the capacity to express feelings, opinions, rights, and desires directly, honestly, and appropriately without violating the fundamental rights of others. Developed within the conceptual framework of social skills established by behavioral psychology and developmental psychometrics (notably Del Prette & Del Prette, 2017), the AAA-S was created through an initial exploratory qualitative stage utilizing adolescent focus groups. This grounded inductive methodology informed the construction of an initial 80-item pool capturing ecologically valid developmental scenarios spanning interpersonal boundaries, academic encounters, authority negotiations, peer pressures, and emotional expressions.

Through rigorous psychometric screening and content validation by an expert panel of judges, the scale was distilled into a focused 20-item instrument. Items are formatted along a four-point Likert response scale ranging from 1 (never or rarely) to 4 (always/almost always). In initial validation studies conducted in Brazil with adolescents aged 12 to 15 years, the AAA-S exhibited robust content validity, achieving a total Content Validity Coefficient (CVCt) of .97 and individual item coefficients (CVCi) exceeding .80, with expert judge agreement averages spanning .92 to .99 across linguistic clarity, practical pertinence, and theoretical relevance. Semantic validity evaluations demonstrated high general comprehensibility among adolescents (86.4% comprehensibility rate), with a moderate correlation between developmental age and comprehension level (r = 0.41, p = 0.05). As an emerging, open-access developmental measure, the AAA-S provides clinicians, school psychologists, and researchers with an ecologically grounded instrument for identifying social deficits, tailoring behavioral interventions, and tracking communicative competence during the transition through adolescence.

2. Keywords

Adolescent assertiveness, Adolescent Assertiveness Assessment Scale, social skills assessment, interpersonal competence, content validity coefficient, semantic validity, adolescent psychology, peer relationships, behavioral assessment, psychometrics

3. Authors

The Adolescent Assertiveness Assessment Scale was developed by a team of Brazilian researchers specializing in developmental psychometrics, behavioral psychology, and psychological assessment:

• Sara Luize Pereira de Lima — Lead researcher; Department of Psychology, Universidade Federal da Paraíba (UFPB) / Associated Institutions, Brazil. Corresponding author email: [email protected].
• Shirley de Souza Silva Simeão — Co-investigator and researcher in psychological evaluation and developmental behavioral processes.
• Washington Allysson Dantas Silva — Psychometrician and quantitative analyst specializing in measurement theory and instrument design.
• Melyssa Kellyane Cavalcanti Galdino — Senior investigator and professor of psychological assessment, social skills research, and developmental behavioral intervention.

4. Purpose

Adolescence represents a critical, turbulent developmental period characterized by rapid neurobiological remodeling, identity renegotiation, shifting attachment bonds from primary caregivers toward peer groups, and heightened vulnerability to social anxieties and conformity pressures (adolescent psychology). Within this developmental crucible, assertiveness serves as a foundational psychological buffer. It enables adolescents to navigate complex peer hierarchies, resist coercive pressures regarding substance abuse or delinquency, resolve interpersonal conflicts constructively, and interface effectively with adult authority figures such as educators and parents.

The primary purpose of the Adolescent Assertiveness Assessment Scale (AAA-S) is to provide an empirically grounded, ecologically valid, and developmentally tailored measure of assertiveness for youth aged 12 to 18 years. Historically, clinicians and behavioral researchers working with adolescent cohorts were compelled to rely on adult assertiveness scales—such as the Rathus Assertiveness Schedule or the College Self-Expression Scale—or generic social skills batteries that lacked ecological realism for youth or suffered from outdated vernacular. Such adult-centric adaptations frequently fail to capture the nuances of adolescent interpersonal dynamics, including peer social standing, academic classroom assertiveness, sibling and parental negotiations, and modern relational disputes.

In clinical practice, the AAA-S was designed to serve as both a diagnostic screen and a treatment-planning tool. Deficits in assertiveness during youth frequently manifest across two divergent behavioral pathways:

• Passive / Inhibited behaviors: characterized by social withdrawal, somatic complaints, chronic submissiveness, school refusal, and internalizing disorders such as depression and generalized or social anxiety disorder.
• Aggressive / Coercive behaviors: characterized by hostility, irony, verbal escalation, oppositional tendencies, and externalizing behavioral problems.

By mapping adolescent responses across typical day-to-day scenarios, the AAA-S assists clinicians in distinguishing passive unassertiveness from aggressive overcompensation, establishing concrete targets for Social Skills Training (SST), and systematically monitoring therapeutic progress. In educational and research environments, the AAA-S supports large-scale screening to evaluate anti-bullying programs, socio-emotional learning (SEL) curricula, and universal school-based preventive interventions aimed at cultivating resilient communicative practices.

5. Psychological Construct

Assertiveness is conceptualized within contemporary behavioral psychology as a multifaceted class of interpersonal social skills. Grounded in the taxonomy established by Del Prette and Del Prette (2017), assertiveness is not merely the absence of shyness or aggression; rather, it represents a differentiated repertoire of behaviors through which an individual affirms their personal rights, communicates desires, feelings, beliefs, and limits, and addresses relational friction directly, honestly, and respectfully without infringing upon the human rights of interlocutors.

The construct of adolescent assertiveness assessed by the AAA-S incorporates several interrelated behavioral subclasses:

Self-Affirmation and Voicing Dissent

This dimension encompasses an adolescent’s capacity to articulate personal perspectives, dissent from group consensus, and defend personal viewpoints without resorting to hostility. In adolescent peer cultures, conformity pressures can be overwhelming; youth lacking self-affirmative assertiveness routinely sacrifice personal convictions to secure peer approval. Items measuring this subclass assess an individual’s readiness to voice disagreement when peers express opposing opinions (e.g., Item 1) and defend divergent personal tastes or identities calmly (e.g., Item 8).

Consumer and Everyday Resource Assertiveness

Assertiveness extends beyond emotional exchanges into utilitarian everyday transactions. This subclass captures an adolescent’s ability to demand fair treatment, negotiate consumer rights, and resolve practical inconveniences. For adolescents, entering commercial spaces and navigating independent logistics (e.g., returning defective or unsuitable merchandise as tapped by Item 2, or inquiring about directions when lost) represent vital markers of emerging autonomy and practical self-efficacy.

Interfacing with Academic Authority

Interactions between students and educational authorities represent an asymmetrical power dynamic that frequently induces performance anxiety. Assertiveness in this domain involves the ability to seek academic clarification, request instructional support, voice collective student needs, and speak candidly with educators without disabling fear or rebellious hostility. The AAA-S assesses this operational subclass through items examining communicative ease with teachers (Item 4), representing peer groups before authorities (Item 5), and requesting instructional re-explanation (Item 18).

Boundary Setting and Refusal Skills

The capacity to say “no” to unreasonable demands, predatory requests, or boundary violations constitutes a core protective mechanism during secondary school. Adolescents are routinely confronted with peer exploitation, such as requests to facilitate academic dishonesty or surrender personal work. Submissive adolescents yield to these demands out of fear of social rejection, even when doing so incurs substantial personal detriment. The AAA-S captures this dynamic via scenarios such as declining to compromise one’s own academic progress when peers demand class notes (Item 17) or requesting peer quietude during focused learning (Item 20).

Affective Expression and Relational Initiative

Assertiveness encompasses not only defensive posturing, but also positive affective agency—the capacity to initiate, sustain, and gracefully terminate romantic or peer bonds, declare romantic affection (Item 9), and express emotional dissatisfaction within intimate relationships (Item 13 and Item 16). Furthermore, mature assertiveness entails taking accountability for interpersonal harm, offering sincere apologies (Item 14), and acknowledging mistakes rather than employing defensive deflection (Item 15).

Managing Interpersonal Irritation and Hostility

Assertiveness stands in direct theoretical contrast to aggressive reactivity. When confronted with parental critiques or peer disputes, unassertive individuals may erupt into anger, defensive hostility, or covert aggression such as irony and sarcasm. The AAA-S measures tendencies toward non-assertive aggressive expressions, including chronic frustration at parental evaluations (Item 7) and habitual recourse to irony with peers (Item 10).

6. Theoretical Framework

The theoretical architecture of the Adolescent Assertiveness Assessment Scale is firmly rooted in Social Learning Theory (Albert Bandura), Behavioral Social Skills Theory, and the Brazilian tradition of interpersonal competence articulated by Zilda A. P. Del Prette and Almir Del Prette. Under this comprehensive paradigm, social competence is defined as an evaluative construct reflecting the degree to which an individual’s social performance satisfies three interdependent criteria:

1. Attainment of the individual’s personal instrumental objectives (instrumental efficacy).
2. Maintenance or enhancement of positive relationship quality with the interaction partner (relational efficacy).
3. Preservation and promotion of the individual’s self-esteem, psychological wellbeing, and the fundamental human rights of all parties (ethical-affective efficacy).

Within Del Prette and Del Prette’s structural framework, assertiveness is conceptualized as an essential subclass within the broader taxonomy of social skills, which also includes communication, empathy, civil rights defense, work-related collaboration, and positive emotional expression. Assertiveness occupies a central position because it regulates the delicate equilibrium between the self and the other. As illustrated in classic behavioral models (e.g., Wolpe, Lazarus, Alberti & Emmons), interpersonal response styles exist across a three-point spectrum:

• Passivity (Submissiveness): Prioritizing the rights, desires, and opinions of others while surrendering one’s own. Rooted in social fear, hyper-conformity, and conflict avoidance, passivity leads to internal resentment, self-deprecation, and behavioral inhibition.
• Aggressiveness: Enforcing one’s own rights, desires, and opinions through coercion, intimidation, humiliation, or disregard for others. Rooted in dominance, dysregulated affect, and instrumental hostility, aggressiveness damages social networks and escalates conflict.
• Assertiveness: Upholding one’s rights, expressing needs, and asserting boundaries while simultaneously acknowledging, respecting, and protecting the reciprocal rights and dignity of others.

From an ontogenetic perspective, the transition into adolescence necessitates a dramatic qualitative restructuring of these behavioral repertoires. During childhood, assertive behavior is heavily scaffolded by caregivers and classroom teachers. In adolescence, however, youths must deploy assertiveness autonomously across increasingly complex, unsupervised peer contexts. Neurologically, this period is marked by asynchronous development between the limbic system (heightening emotional reactivity and peer reward sensitivity) and the prefrontal cortex (responsible for executive functioning, inhibitory control, and long-term planning). Consequently, adolescents frequently default to emotional reactivity (aggression or total withdrawal) when confronted with social conflict. The AAA-S was designed precisely to capture the nuances of this transitional stage by mapping adolescent behavioral choices onto concrete, ecologically authentic social dilemmas.

7. Validity

The psychometric evaluation of the Adolescent Assertiveness Assessment Scale has adhered to stringent international standards for psychological test development, beginning with foundational qualitative grounding and progressing through quantitative content and semantic validity appraisals (de Lima et al., 2024).

Qualitative Grounding and Item Generation

To avoid adult-centric bias and ensure ecological validity, the scale construction commenced with exploratory qualitative focus groups involving adolescents aged 12 to 15 years. Participants engaged in semi-structured discussions concerning everyday interpersonal conflicts, peer interactions, classroom dynamics, and parental expectations. Through thematic analysis of this discourse, coupled with the theoretical taxonomy of assertiveness subclasses (Del Prette & Del Prette, 2017), an initial pool of 80 potential items was formulated. This inductive, participant-informed approach ensured that the behavioral scenarios reflected genuine adolescent idioms and real-life dilemmas.

Content Validity

The 80 candidate items were submitted to an expert panel of independent judges specializing in developmental psychology, psychometrics, and behavioral social skills assessment. Judges evaluated each item across three fundamental psychometric criteria using 5-point ordinal rating scales:

• Linguistic Clarity: Whether the wording is intelligible, age-appropriate, and unambiguous for adolescents aged 12 to 18.
• Practical Pertinence: Whether the item depicts an authentic, ecologically relevant situation encountered in adolescent daily life.
• Theoretical Relevance: Whether the item accurately reflects the operational definition and underlying construct of assertiveness.

Quantitative content validity was calculated using the Content Validity Coefficient (CVC; Hernández-Nieto, 2002). The total Content Validity Coefficient across the final instrument reached an exceptional level of CVCt = .97. Individual item coefficients (CVCi) consistently exceeded the established psychometric cutoff of .80, with average judge concordance rates spanning between .92 and .99 across all evaluated parameters. Items exhibiting semantic ambiguity, redundant variance, or sub-threshold coefficients were systematically eliminated, distilling the instrument into an optimized, highly focused 20-item battery.

Semantic Validity

Following expert review, the revised 20-item scale underwent empirical semantic validation with a target cohort of adolescents aged 12 to 15 years in Brazil to evaluate cognitive comprehensibility and instructions clarity. Utilizing a standardized comprehension rating scale where median scores > 2.5 denoted high comprehension indices, the overall scale demonstrated a general comprehensibility rate of 86.4%. Furthermore, correlation analysis between adolescent chronological age and comprehension scores revealed a statistically significant, moderate positive association (r = 0.41, p = 0.05). This finding confirms that while the measure is readily intelligible to early adolescents, cognitive and linguistic maturity modestly enhances reading comprehension, supporting its suitability across the broader 12–18 age band.

8. Reliability

In the published foundational validation study of the AAA-S (de Lima et al., 2024), the primary methodological objective was establishing content and semantic validity; formal sample-wide internal consistency metrics and temporal stability indices were reserved for subsequent empirical testing. Psychometric assessment standards mandate that scale developers confirm linguistic comprehensibility and item-content fidelity prior to undertaking extensive national normative reliability testing.

Consequently, definitive national sample estimates for Cronbach’s alpha (α), McDonald’s omega (ω), and test-retest intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) are currently being established in ongoing psychometric investigations across diverse adolescent cohorts in Brazil. Given the high item homogeneity and robust content validity coefficients (CVCt = .97), the AAA-S is anticipated to demonstrate satisfactory internal consistency (α ≥ .75 to .85), meeting standard psychometric thresholds for research and clinical screening batteries.

9. Factor Analysis

In the initial instrument development report (de Lima et al., 2024), empirical factor analytic procedures—such as Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA)—were not conducted, as the primary milestone was the qualitative derivation, expert content validation, and semantic calibration of the 20-item instrument. As explicitly outlined by the authors, structural equation modeling and latent dimensionality verification constitute the immediate next phase of the scale’s empirical validation trajectory.

Theoretically, the 20 items of the AAA-S are structured around key behavioral subclasses of assertiveness (Del Prette & Del Prette, 2017). Subsequent EFA and CFA studies are anticipated to evaluate competing latent models, including:

• A unidimensional model representing generalized adolescent assertiveness.
• A multidimensional first-order model delineating distinct contextual domains (e.g., Assertiveness toward Peers, Assertiveness with Authority/Teachers, Affective/Relational Expression, and Boundary Setting / Saying “No”).
• A bifactor or higher-order structural model with a broad general assertiveness dimension accounting for shared variance alongside specific domain-level subfactors.

Future factor analyses utilizing robust estimation techniques (such as Robust Diagonally Weighted Least Squares [RDWLS] or WLSMV for ordinal Likert indicators) will establish precise factor loadings, examine composite reliability, and verify goodness-of-fit parameters including Comparative Fit Index (CFI ≥ .95), Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI ≥ .95), and Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA ≤ .06).

10. Instrument / Measurement Tool

• Instrument Name: Adolescent Assertiveness Assessment Scale (AAA-S)
• Target Population: Adolescents aged 12 to 18 years (initial semantic validation conducted on ages 12–15)
• Instrument Type: Self-report behavioral rating scale
• Number of Items: 20 items
• Response Format: 4-point Likert scale:
  • 1 = Never or rarely
  • 2 = Sometimes
  • 3 = Often
  • 4 = Always/almost always
• Administration Method: Paper-and-pencil or electronic (online assessment systems)
• Completion Time: Approximately 8 to 12 minutes
• Scoring Procedures:
  • The scale contains both positively phrased assertive behaviors and negatively keyed unassertive or aggressive behaviors.
  • Positively keyed items (e.g., Items 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 14, 16, 18, 20) are scored directly from 1 to 4, where higher scores reflect greater assertiveness.
  • Negatively keyed items reflecting submissiveness, social inhibition, or hostility (e.g., Items 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 17, 19) must be reverse-coded (1 = 4, 2 = 3, 3 = 2, 4 = 1) prior to computing composite totals.
  • A total global assertiveness score is computed by summing all 20 calibrated item scores, generating a possible score range between 20 and 80. Higher aggregate scores indicate a broader and more competent repertoire of assertive social behaviors.

11. Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Adolescent Assertiveness Assessment Scale was developed and published in 2024. The instrument is distributed under an open-access Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). In accordance with open science practices and developmental behavioral research initiatives, the AAA-S is freely available for non-commercial educational, clinical, and scientific research purposes without royalty fees or licensing costs.

Researchers and mental health practitioners planning to adapt, translate, or implement the AAA-S in clinical or academic investigations are encouraged to cite the foundational validation publication (de Lima et al., 2024) and may correspond directly with lead author Sara Luize Pereira de Lima at [email protected].

12. References

• Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Prentice-Hall.
• de Lima, S. L. P., Simeão, S. d. S. S., Silva, W. A. D., & Galdino, M. K. C. (2024). Adolescent Assertiveness Assessment Scale: Evidence of content validity. Psicologia: Teoria e Pesquisa, 40, Article e40403. https://doi.org/10.1590/0102.3772e40403.en
• Del Prette, A., & Del Prette, Z. A. P. (2017). Competência social e habilidades sociais: Manual teórico-prático [Social competence and social skills: Theoretical-practical manual]. Editora Vozes.
• Del Prette, Z. A. P., & Del Prette, A. (2005). Psicologia das habilidades sociais na infância: Teoria e prática [Psychology of social skills in childhood: Theory and practice]. Editora Vozes.
• Hernández-Nieto, R. A. (2002). Contributions to statistical analysis: The content validity coefficient and the coefficient of proportional variation under uncertainty. Universidad de Los Andes.
• Lazarus, A. A. (1973). On assertive behavior: A brief note. Behavior Therapy, 4(5), 697–699. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7894(73)80161-3
• Rathus, S. A. (1973). A 30-item schedule for assessing assertive behavior. Behavior Therapy, 4(3), 398–406. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7894(73)80120-0

13. Items of the Scale