African Educational Research Journal Vol. 10(3) - Full Length Research Paper - Examining of University Students' Assertiveness Levels and Attitudes towards Physical Education Course

Oct 15, 2026

The study investigates university students’ assertiveness levels and their attitudes toward the physical education course by gender, regular sports participation, and academic achievement. A descriptive design is used with 116 university students (mean age 20.64) from Artvin Coruh University’s physical education and sport course during the 2018-2019 academic year. Physical Education and Sport Attitude Scale and Rathus Assertiveness Inventory assess outcomes, with normality testing, correlation, and group-comparison statistics. Results show a negative link between assertiveness and course attitudes, significant gender differences in attitudes, and no significant differences for gender in assertiveness, nor for regular sports or academic achievement.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

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African Educational Research Journal Vol. 10(3), pp. 388-393, October 2022 DOI: 10. 30918/AERJ.104.21.150 ISSN: 2354-2160 Full Length Research Paper Examining of university students' assertiveness levels and attitudes towards physical education course Sermet Toktaş1, Abdurrahman Demir2* and Ali İlhan Barut3 1 Department of Physical Education and Sports, Adiyaman University, Adiyaman, Turkey. 2 Department of Physical Education and Sports, Artvin Çoruh University, Artvin, Turkey. 3Ministry of Justice, Mersin, Turkey. Accepted 25 November, 2021 | ABSTRACT
The purpose of the study is to research the assertiveness levels of university students and their attitudes toward physical education course in terms of gender, doing regular sports and academic achievement. The design of the research is descriptive. The sample of the study consists of university students who take physical education and sport course in the first aid and emergency department of Artvin Coruh University in the 2018-2019 academic year. A total of 116 university students with a mean age of 20.64 participated in the study as voluntarily. Physical Education and Sport Attitude Scale was used to measure students’attitudes and the Rathus Assertiveness Inventory was used to measure assertiveness levels. In the study, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to determine the distribution of normality, the Pearson correlation test was used to examine the relationship between students' attitudes towards physical education and sport and assertiveness levels, the independent sample t-test in parametric distributions, the Mann Whitney U test was used in non-parametric distributions. Kruskal Wallis test was used in more than two groups because the distributions are not normal. According to the findings, there was a negative correlation between the assertiveness levels of students and their attitudes toward physical education course. There was a significant difference between the attitudes towards physical education course in terms of gender, on the contrary, there was no significant difference between assertiveness levels in terms of gender. There was no significant difference between assertiveness levels and the attitudes towards physical education course in terms of doing regular sports and there was no significant difference between assertiveness levels and the attitudes towards physical education course in terms of academic achievement. As a result, although there was a negative relationship between attitudes of university students towards physical education and sports course and assertiveness levels, it was observed that attitudes towards the course are more positive in favor of male students. There were no significant differences between the levels of assertiveness and attitudes towards physical education and sports courses in terms of doing regular sports and academic achievement levels.
Keywords: Physical education, sport course, assertiveness, attitude. | | --- | | *Corresponding author. E-mail: [ademir@artvin.edu.tr](ademir@artvin.edu.tr). | INTRODUCTION The quality of communication created by the individual depends on the level of interaction and social skills of the individual. Assertiveness is defined as a positive behavior developed in response to two opposing situations (avoidance and aggression) in interpersonal communication. Assertive behaviors play an active role in the communication of the individual in daily life (Karagözoğlu et al. , 2008) . In English, the word “assertiveness” has several Turkish equivalents such as assertive, sociable, aggressive and self-revealing. Of these, the most appropriate use was found to be aggressive (Toros et al. , 2017) . Alberti and Emmons (1973) described an assertive person as someone who knew their rights, along with those who were sensitive to the people around them. Taşkın (2004) defined assertiveness as the "ability to do" . Toktaş et al. 389 Andrew Salter was the first practitioner of ass

FAQs

What variables does the study examine regarding physical education course and student behavior?

It examines university students’ assertiveness levels and their attitudes toward the physical education course in terms of gender, regular sports participation, and academic achievement.

Which instruments and tests are used to measure and analyze the data?

The Physical Education and Sport Attitude Scale measures attitudes, and the Rathus Assertiveness Inventory measures assertiveness. Normality is assessed with Kolmogorov-Smirnov, relationships with Pearson correlation, and group differences with independent-samples t-test/Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis as appropriate.

What are the main findings about the relationship between assertiveness and course attitudes?

Findings indicate a negative correlation between students’ assertiveness levels and their attitudes toward the physical education course.

Oct 15, 2026

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