Dating Competence, Social Assertion and Social Anxiety among College Students

Two hundred and seventeen (217) participants of different ethnic groups (African American, Asian American, European American, Mexican American, and Multiracial) responded to questionnaires regarding their levels of dating competence, dating assertion and social anxiety. Dating competence and social assertion were assessed by the Dating and Assertion Questionnaire and social anxiety was measured by the Social Anxiety Thoughts Questionnaire and by the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale. The results showed that dating competence and social assertion were negatively related to social anxiety. Interestingly, there were no differences in these constructs among the ethnic groups. Implications of results and suggestions for future research are discussed. Introduction Concerns about dating are prevalent and often related to serious problems among college students (Paul, Poole, & Jakubowyc, 1998; Prisbell, 1989). Apprehension about dating has been found to be associated with a variety of factors including dating frequency (Heimberg, Harrison, Montgomery, Madsen, & Sherfey, 1989), poor dating skills (Prisbell, 1997: Wallanger. Conger, Mariotto, Curran, & Farrell, 1980), assertion (Prisbell, 1986), loneliness and shyness (Jones, Cheek, & Briggs, 1986;). An interesting question to answer is whether there is a relationship between social anxiety and dating competence. Social anxiety is defined as anxiety that results from the prospect or presence of personal evaluation in real or imagined social situations (Schlenker & Leary, 1982). Previous research asserted that interpersonal interactions for college students are stressful (Santiago-Rivera, Gard & Bernstein, 1999). Since the anticipation of social interaction can be relevant to social anxiety, a purpose of the present study was to assess the relationship between social anxiety, dating competence and social assertion. Moreover, research has shown variations in social anxiety between different ethnic groups and has indicated that ethnic minority individuals have reported more social anxiety than did Caucasians (King & LeSure-Lester, 1999; Okazaki 1997; Sue, Ino & Sue, 1983; Uba, 1994). An important question to ask is whether there would be variations in dating competence and social assertion among ethnic groups. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to determine whether there will be ethnic differences in these constructs for college students. Method Participants The participants in the study consisted of 217 male and female students from two colleges in the Los Angeles area and were enrolled in lower division general studies classes. Students identified themselves and both parents as members of one of four ethnic groups: Asian American (of Chinese, Japanese, or Korean origin), 12: African American, 91: Caucasian, 60: Mexican American (Mexican-American or Mexican American of Mexican origin), 26; and Multiracial, 28. The participant's age ranged from 18 to 22 and they were from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds as indicated by self report. Measures Dating and Assertion Questionnaire (DAQ). This instrument is an 18 item questionnaire with two subscales: dating competence and assertion in social situations. The DAQ is documented to have a reliability of .92 for dating competence and .85 for social assertion (Levenson & Gottman, 1978). On the dating subscale subjects responded to a 4-point scale from I never do this to I do this almost always to several vignettes which separately described a variety of dating situations. An example of a dating anxiety vignette read: "You meet someone you don't know very well but are attracted to. You want to ask him/her out for a date." A high score reflects dating competence. Similarly, social assertion was assessed by a 4 point scale from never do this to I do this almost always. An example of an assertion vignette read: "You're waiting patiently at the checkout when a couple of people cut right in front of you. …