A report of a counselling internship and a research study assessing the effectiveness of an assertion training programme with aggressive adolescents at the St. John's Adolescent Health Counselling Service

Abstract

This report provides a comprehensive description of a thirteen week, full-time counselling internship completed from April to July, 1987 at The St. John's Adolescent Health Counselling Service. -- The report encompasses two areas: -- 1. A statement of the internship objectives and rationale, a description of the internship activities, and evaluation procedures which were in place during the internship. -- 2. A thorough literature review, and a report on the situation-based research problem which was developed, carried out and evaluated during the course of the internship. -- The research study conducted during the internship intended to show that an assertion training programme implemented with a seven member group of aggressive male adolescents would be effective in demonstrating changes in assertive responses for the group members. -- In order to assess these changes the Gambrill and Richey Assertion Inventory Revised (1985) was employed in a pre-test and post-test situation. Correlated t-tests were utilized to determine the amount of change on two levels: the degree of discomfort the individual feels when faced with potentially threatening situations; and the probability that assertive responses would be utilized in daily situations. -- This study found that the group members showed a significant difference in their 'degree of discomfort' measure after completion of the assertion training phase. On the second measure which was assessed, 'response probability', the difference was not found to be significant at the .05 level of confidence.