Assertiveness, social support, and psychological adjustment following spinal cord injury

• Published in: Behaviour research and therapy Vol. 29; no. 5; pp. 485 - 493
• Main Authors: Elliott, Timothy R., Herrick, Stephen M., Patti, Anne M., Witty, Thomas E., Godshall, Frank J., Spruell, Michael
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 1991; Elsevier Science; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Adaptation, Psychological; Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Assertiveness; Biological and medical sciences; Cerebrospinal fluid. Meninges. Spinal cord; Depression - psychology; Female; Humans; Injuries; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Nervous system; Nervous system (semeiology, syndromes); Neurology; Psychology; Sick Role; Social research; Social Support; Spinal Cord Injuries - psychology; Human; Social dominance; Social interaction; Depression; Social adaptation; Coping; Spinal cord disease; Trauma; Interpersonal relation; Social support
• ISSN: 0005-7967; 1873-622X
• DOI: 10.1016/0005-7967(91)90133-N

Tested predictions that assertiveness and social support would be significantly predictive of psychological adjustment. Furthermore, it was anticipated that assertiveness and certain types of social relationships would differentially interact to predict adjustment, since positive and negative effects of both variables have been noted in prior research. Trained raters interviewed 156 persons receiving either in-patient or out-patient care for cord injuries and administered measures of assertiveness, social support, depression and psychosocial impairment. Persons who reported a keen sense of responsibility for the welfare of another reported more depression and impairment. Persons reporting higher levels of support facilitating social integration and reassuring personal worth were less depressed. Several significant interactions between assertiveness and different social support relationships revealed beneficial and deleterious effects on depressive behavior and impairment secondary to the disability. Results are discussed as they advance theoretical understanding of the effects of assertiveness and social support. Implications for discriminate cue learning in assertion training for persons with physical disability are proposed.