Self-assertiveness and Perceived Parenting Style among Medical Students in Southern India: A Cross-sectional Study

Introduction: The youth population particularly medical students should have the ability to express their feelings without hurting others and thus develop proper communication with the patients. The way they express and take decision shows their self-assertiveness. The communication potential and the assertivenss skill is developed mainly during the childhood partially through parental guidance.

Aim: To assess self-assertiveness and perceived parenting style among medical students and to assess any association between the variables.

Materials and Methods: The study was conducted as a cross-sectional study among 400 prefinal and final-year medical students (MBBS) from Travancore Medical College, Kollam district Kerala, India for a period of two months from January-February 2020. The data was collected using a self-reported questionnaire method which includes- socio-demographic details, Rathus assertiveness scale to assess self-assertiveness, and parenting bond instrument to assess perceived parenting style. The association was assessed using Chi-square and Fisher's exact test. The data was collected in Microsoft excel and analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23.0.

Results: The mean age of the study population was 21.34±1.71 years, and there were 132 (33%) males, and 268 (67%) females. The study showed that 206 subjects (51.5%) had low assertiveness scores. Among subjects, most of the subjects {236 (59%) in the father and 252 (63%) in the mother} perceived their parents to have optimal parenting style. The male gender perceived the parents to be affectionless and high protection from the parents showed a significant reduction in the assertiveness scores. The study did not found any significant association between perceived parenting styles and the self-assertiveness score of medical students. In case of father, the Chi-square value was 7.27, and p-value was 0.20 and for mother the Chi-square value was 4.93 and the p-value was 0.08.

Conclusion: Most of the medical students have low self-assertiveness score and perceived their parents to have optimal parenting styles. Even though the study showed an absence of association between the perceived parenting style and self-assertiveness, the importance of being assertive should be established among students and measures can be adopted to make a family consultation.