Children's evaluations of aggressive, assertive, and submissive responses

Abstract

In this study, 231 fourth‐sixth grade children were asked to judge aggressive, assertive, and submissive solutions to interpersonal conflict situations along “evaluative”; and “potency”; dimensions, and to assess the consequences of such behaviors for themselves and for others. Significant differences were obtained between boys and girls, and among children designated “highly aggressive,”; “highly assertive,”; and “highly submissive.”; In contrast to the great disparity between the judgments of aggressive and assertive children, assertive and submissive children differed significantly only in their ratings of assertive alternatives on particular “evaluative”; dimensions (i.e., “good‐bad,”; “wise‐foolish,”; “kind‐cruel"). Clinical implications of these findings are discussed.