Effectiveness of Positive Thinking Training on Self-Assertiveness of Teenage Girls

Self-assertiveness is the ability to stand up for one’s rights and express one’s thoughts, feelings, and beliefs in an appropriate and direct manner. Adolescence is an important time to establish the social position of individuals. This study aimed to investigate the effect of positive thinking training on adolescences. The target population was female students of Hazrat-e-Masumeh School in Ilam, Iran in the academic year of 2017-2018. According to simple random sampling, 42 subjects were randomly selected and allocated into two equal groups (experimental and control). The experimental group experienced Positive Thinking Training and both groups were given pre-test and post-test through Adolescence Self-Assertiveness questionnaire. The findings showed that the mean of self-assertiveness in the experimental group was 18.81 before Positive Thinking Training (PTT) and 19.95 after PTT. In the control group, the mean of this variable was 18.95 before PTT and 18.51after PTT. This indicates that after training, the mean of self-assertiveness increased in the experimental group but decreased in the control group. Data analysis through analysis of covariance test (ANCOVA) showed significant differences between self-assertiveness scores F (1, 39)=4.65 in the experimental group level in post-test compared to that of the control group (P≤0.05). According to the results of this study, PTT can be effective in increasing the self-assertiveness of teenage girls. The effect of positive thinking showed that optimism is an important factor in coping with difficult life events and assisting teenagers to deal with their negative thoughts and promoting their self-assertiveness.