Effectiveness of assertiveness skill training on social skills and self-esteem of students with hearing impairment

One of the most important problems of students with hearing impairment is communication and social skills. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of assertiveness skill training on social skills and self-esteem of students with hearing impairment. The research was a semi-experimental study with pre-test-posttest design and a control group. The statistical population consisted of female students with hearing impairment studying in high schools of Rasht city during 2016-2017 academic year. A sample of 30 subjects was selected by available sampling method and randomly assigned to two experiment (15 subjects) and control (15 subjects) groups. To collect data, Gersham Eliot's Social Skills Scale (1999) and Cooper Smith's Self-Esteem (1967) were used and for the experiment group, assertiveness skill training was held in 10 sessions of 90 minutes. The results of multivariate analysis of covariance showed that assertiveness skill training can increase the level of social skills and self-esteem of students with hearing impairment (P=0.001). Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that group assertiveness training by knowledge-raising, role playing, and observational learning can be used as an effective interventional method to improve social skills and self-esteem among students with hearing impairment.