Assertividade e problemas comportamentais em adolescentes

Abstract

Assertive capacity is developed throughout childhood and mainly adolescence, and it is a protective factor against behavioral problems. This capacity allows an individual to face difficult interpersonal situations with a behavior that preserves his/her own rights and values, as well as the rights and values of other people. This work aims at relating assertiveness to behavioral problems in adolescents. For this purpose, the Youth Self-Report questionnaire (YSR/11-18) is used here in order to describe an intervention for social skills and to build and validate the Difficulties in Assertive Behavior Scale (in Portuguese, EDCA-A) for adolescents from 14 to 17 years old. Researching behavioral problems among adolescents is a challenge for health professionals and teachers, because these problems can cause difficulties of social behavior, misfits at school and problems with the development of strong relationships. Currently, there are still few studies about the subject and few assertiveness instruments translated into Portuguese. Besides, those already written cannot be easily found. Therefore, more researches on the issue and more projects related to assertive skills are suggested. Finally, a correlation between the communication factor from the EDCA-A scale and the anxiety and depression subscales from the YSR/11-18 was found, what allows to think on the importance of assertiveness and on some behavioral problems among adolescents.