Prosociality and assertiveness: Associations with students' internalising and externalising problems

Objectives: Understanding the predictors of students’ mental health is at the core of developmental psychology research agenda. Although previous studies pointed out to the importance of prosociality (a behaviour intended to benefit another), and assertiveness (tendency to affirm and defend one’s own point of view), as individual protective factors, the extent to which they jointly protect against internalizing (INT) and externalizing problems (EXT) deserves further investigation. Design: In the current study, we tested the independent and interactive effects of prosociality and assertiveness in association with INT and EXT among at primary and secondary schools. Methods: A sample of 742 students (Mage=11.74, SD=1.46) from 35 classrooms in Liverpool (UK) filled out validated scales of prosociality, assertiveness, and internalising and externalising behaviour. Results: Multilevel regression indicated that higher level of prosociality and assertiveness at the student level predicted lower level of INT (b =-.07, p=.04 and b=-.14, p<.001, respectively) while controlling for gender and age differences (primary vs secondary school). Interestingly, EXT was differently predicted by prosociality and assertiveness: whereas prosociality was negatively related to EXT (b=-.29, p<.001), assertiveness predicted higher levels of EXT (b=.10, p<.001). Interaction effects between prosociality and assertiveness as well as their interaction with students' age were not significant, suggesting that the effects of prosociality and assertiveness were consistent across school levels. Conclusions: The practical implications of these findings are discussed by highlighting that excessive level of assertiveness may represent a risk factor for developing EXT during childhood and adolescence.