ASSERTIVENESS SKILL OF SOCIAL WORK STUDENTS: A CASE OF TURKEY

Assertiveness can be defined as a skill of one’s ability to freely express and defend views about a subject, needs and demands without invading the boundaries of others. Assertiveness is increasingly attracting attention recently and catching eye as an important concept in human relations. Assertiveness which is a skill that can be learned is being highly emphasized during social work education; it has been desired for social work students to have this skill. However in Turkish literature there is no scientific research which addressed the assertiveness of social work students. In this context this research has been conducted with 1st and 4th grade students (n: 198) who are studying in Social Work Department at Hacettepe University. The assertiveness skills scale of Rathus has been used to obtain data. According to summed results it has been noticed that the social work education has not increased the assertiveness skills, 1st grade students are being more assertive than 4th grade students, male students are being more assertive than female students and assertiveness level of students is reduced when the income of their families increased. Consequently, this research is considered to contribute to the social work literature.