Abstract
Most Nigerian students have the problem of standing up for their right especially in a social
situation. This affects their ability to dialogue, press, influence, and impose their opinion to
the acceptance of others. Unassertiveness may sometimes predict mal-adaptive behaviour
which is usually seen in people with low self-esteem and this may significantly affect one’s
religiosity. As a result and in consideration of the importance of religious life of young
people and its relationship with social mal-adjustment, this study explored religiosity and
social mal-adjustment as correlates of assertiveness competence among undergraduate. 432
student-participants comprising of 191 males and 242 females were used for the respondents
of the study with the participants’ age ranging from 17 to 25 years on a mean age of 22.60
years and standard deviation of 2.12. Three hypotheses were formulated to guide the study
and data was collected with the aid of assertiveness competence scale from Dating and
assertiveness questionnaire (DAQ) by Levenson and Gottman (1978), religious affiliation
scale by Omoluabi (1995)and social mal-adjustment scale by social mal-adjustment scale
(SMS) by Wiggins (1966).The result of the analysis confirmed that religiosity and maladjustment
correlated positively and negatively respectively; whereas religiosity and maladjustment
correlated negatively among Nigeria students. It is recommended that all agents
of socialization notably; the family, the school and church should emphasize more on the
usefulness of deepening assertiveness training in secondary schools so as to improve on their
resolve to get better when they get over to the university.
Authors: Ike, P.R.1; Etodike, C.E2; & Edwards, L.N
1Department of Psychology, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Anambra State
E-mail: nelsonetodike@gmail.com,
2Department of Psychology, Federal University Ndufu-Alaike Ikwo, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State
E-mail: preciousike45@gmail.com, and
3Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences
Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, PMB 5025, Awka Anambra State
E-mail: ndidiedwards@gmail.com,
