title: Relations of children's proactive and reactive assertiveness to peer acceptance: moderating effects of social interest.
abstract: Previous studies on the social outcome of assertiveness reported mixed findings, failing to support the assumption that assertiveness promotes peer acceptance. In an attempt to provide explanations for the inconsistencies in prior findings, this study proposed making a distinction between proactive and reactive assertiveness and examined the moderating effects of social interest. A total of 441 fifth and sixth graders (232 boys, 209 girls; M age = 10.6 yr., SD = 0.6) participated in the study. Results indicated that proactive assertiveness was positively related to peer acceptance regardless of social interest. By contrast, reactive assertiveness was positively related to peer acceptance but only when social interest is high. When social interest is low, it was negatively associated with peer acceptance.
authors: 1 Chuncheon National University of Education, Chuncheon, South Korea.
authors: Han-Jong
authors: HJ
authors: Lee
mesh_terms: D000533:Altruism; D001242:Assertiveness; D002648:Child; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D056348:Emotional Intelligence; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D010379:Peer Group; D056910:Republic of Korea; D012928:Social Desirability; D012933:Social Identification; D012963:Sociometric Techniques