title: Communication self-assessment by public prosecutors in a north-eastern Brazilian state.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe how public prosecutors self-assess their communication approaches and how listeners react to them; to analyze how this relates to gender, age, and work experience.
  
  
  METHODS
  Descriptive, transversal study. A questionnaire was developed and sent to 126 public prosecutors for completion. Thirty-three completed questionnaires were sent back. The independent variables were gender, age, and number of years of professional experience. The dependent variables were communication self-assessment throughout the years of work, communication parameters used, and listeners' reactions. A descriptive analyzis and Fisher's Exact Test was carried out.
  
  
  RESULTS
  the sample contained both male and female participants with a median age of 43 years and an average of 20 years of professional experience. Most of the respondents claimed they had experienced demotivation, insecurity, tension, and difficulty when trying to convince listeners. More women than men reported they felt that their communication had worsened throughout their careers. All the women reported they experienced insecurity when speaking in public. One third of the public prosecutors stated they suffered from disorders on their voice. Those respondents aged over 43, experienced greater proportion on voice change than younger ones. In contrast to their younger colleagues, the majority of public prosecutors with more than 20 years of professional experience revealed that they felt insecure when speaking in public.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  the public prosecutors identified their strong and weak communication parameters. Gender, age, and work experience affect communicative performance.
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de Sergipe - UFS - Aracaju (SE), Brasil.
authors.forename: Neuza Josina
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Sales
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de Sergipe - UFS - Aracaju (SE), Brasil.
authors.forename: Daniel Francisco Neyra
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Castaneda
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco - UFRPE - Recife (PE), Brasil.
authors.forename: Íkaro Daniel de Carvalho
authors.initials: ÍD
authors.lastname: Barreto
authors.affiliation: ACT Comunicação - Belo Horizonte (MG), Brasil.
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Paoliello
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul - UFMS - Campo Grande (MS), Brasil.
authors.forename: Silvia Márcia Andrade
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Campanha
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001938:Brazil; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D033241:Lawyers; D008297:Male; D010565:Persuasive Communication; D012647:Self-Assessment; D012737:Sex Factors; D013067:Speech Perception