Frequency of no saying and assertiveness skills in last childhood (9-11 years) and diagnostic quality of used scales

The aim of this study is to determine the frequency of assertiveness and the ability to say no in children who are in the last period of childhood, and to evaluate whether the measurement tools that measure this skill can be used as a tool for the prediction. This research was designed in a 2-stage cross-sectional survey model. The first stage is the field screening stage, which is considered as the screening-control group. At this stage, the population was chosen as the children of the age group who were educated in the 3rd and 4th grade and middle school 5th grades in Tarsus district of Mersin. For the sample, 395 students were selected from the selected schools by simple random method (determined as the number of samples required for 80% power and 5% error margin). The second stage of the study was conducted with children of the same age and sex who applied to the Department of Child Mental Health at Çukurova University Faculty of Medicine between 15 May 2019 and 15 August 2019 in order to evaluate the performance of the preliminary tests. This group was evaluated as a case group and the risk group patients who had low ability to say no as a result of the examination of the clinicians were included in the study. The data collection tools used in the research were Personal Information Form, No Saying Ability Scale and Assertiveness Inventory (Elementary Form). The validity and reliability of the scales were analysed and sensitivity and specificity values were determined by ROC analysis and the pre-diagnostic value was examined. According to the results of the factor analysis applied to the No Saying Scale, the scale was collected in two sub-dimensions called rejection and resistance. Scan group of Cronbach's Alpha values was determined that the rejection dimension was 0.87 and the resistance dimension was 0.82. When the correlation between the scales was examined, it was found that there was a moderate and good positive correlation between Assertiveness Scale and Say No Scale Rejection and Resistance sub-dimensions. According to ROC analysis, the predictive value for rejection subscale was 21.5, for resistance subscale was 23.5 and for assertiveness scale was 31.5. According to the predictions, one out of three children had low ability to say no. In the study, it was found that the ability to say no and assertiveness levels of the children in the last childhood differ according to age and gender. In addition to these factors, family structure, socio-economic level (SED) and serious events in the past were also found to be influencing factors. The obtained results show that the validity and reliability of the No Saying Skill Scale used in the research is sufficient and that it can be used as a tool for the preliminary field surveys.