Person. in&id. DJ~ Vol. 12, No. 12, pp. 1239-1243, 1991 Ol91-8869/91 $3.00 + 0.00 Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved Copyright 0 1991 Pergamon Press plc SEX DIFFERENCES IN ASSERTIVENESS ON THE U.S. VERSION OF THE SCALE FOR INTERPERSONAL BEHAVIOR (SIB) K. ROBERT BRIDGES,‘* ROBBERT SANDERMAN,’ PETER BREUKERS,~ ADELITA RANCHOR* and WILLEM A. ARRINDELL~ ‘The Pennsylvania State University, The New Kensington Campus, Department of Psychology, 3550 Seventh Street Road, New Kensington, PA 15068, U.S.A., 2University of Groningen, Department of Health Sciences, Antonius Deusinglaan 1,97 13 AV Groningen and 3University of Groningen, Department of Clinical Psychology, Academic Hospital, Oostersingel 59, 9713 EZ Groningen, The Netherlands (Received II April 1991) Summary-The present study describes the first experience in the U.S.A. with the Scale for Interpersonal Behavior (SIB), a multidimensional self-report measure of difficulty and distress in assertiveness originally devised in the Netherlands. The U.S. SIB was administered to 548 undergraduate students and analyses focused on determining several of its reliability aspects and sex differences in assertiveness. Reliability figures were very encouraging. The majority of the 10 SIB dimensions showed no meaningful sex differences that had important practical, normative implications. However, future normative studies with the SIB in North America should take into account the fact that female students are more assertive (i.e. show less behavioral avoidance) than their male counterparts when expressing and dealing with personal limitations, whereas male students are more assertive (i.e. experience less distress) than female students when displaying negative assertion. INTRODUCTION The Scale for Interpersonal Behavior or SIB (Arrindell, De Groot & Walburg, 1984; Arrindell & Van der Ende, 1985) a multidimensional, self-report measure of assertiveness originally devised in the Netherlands, was developed to assess both discomfort (anxiety) associated with self-assertion in specific situations and the likelihood of engaging in a specific assertive response (avoidance or performance). Specifically, the SIB measures the following factorially derived constructs: (1) Display of negative feelings (negative assertion): requesting change in another person’s irritating behavior; standing up for one’s rights in a public situation (defense of rights and interests); behavior that calls for exercise of initiative to resolve problems and to satisfy needs; ability to refuse requests. (2) Expression of and dealing with personal limitations: admitting ignorance about a topic; recognition of one’s failure or shortcomings; ability to deal with criticism and pressure; requesting help and attention. (3) Initiating assertiveness: social assertiveness in the sense of Lorr and More (1980); expressing one’s own opinion. (4) Praising others and the ability to deal with compliments/praise of others (expression of positive feelings or positive assertion )-in the sense of Henderson and Furnham (1983): giving and receiving praise or compliments; display of feelings. In addition to these subscales, a fifth scale termed General Assertiveness can be employed as an indication of a person’s level of assertiveness across various situations and various types of assertive behavior. The SIB has good reliability and adequate construct validity (Arrindell et al., 1984; Arrindell & Van der Ende, 1985; Arrindell, Sanderman, Van der Molen, Van der Ende & Mersch, 1988; Arrindell, Sanderman & Ranchor, 1990; Arrindell, Sanderman, Hageman, Pickersgill, Kwee, Van der Molen & Lingsma, 1990) and has proven to be a sensitive measure of change (e.g. Emmelkamp, Van der Hout & De Vries, 1983). *To whom all correspondence should be addressed. 1239