Perceived AIDS-Related Assertiveness of Some Japanese College Students: A Cross-Cultural View

Abstract

Most studies of East–West social behaviors tend to ascribe self-assertiveness to the peoples of Euro-American culture, that include Australians, and self-repression to those of Far-East Asia, that include Japanese. Self-assertiveness, defined as the perceived confidence to express one's true, rather than placated, feelings in interpersonal relations, has been variously reported as a necessary social trait for HIV-risk avoidance. The present ex post facto study examined the perceived AIDS-related assertiveness (ASA) of some Japanese college students with those of some Australian high school pupils. The study also examined, in the Japanese sample, the proposition that women were generally less sexually active than men (parental investment theory). The instruments were the AIDS self-assertiveness questionnaire (ASAQ) and the coital sex scale (CSS). Although, inferentially, there was no statistically significant difference in the perceived ASA of the two samples, deductively, the Japanese college young adults showed less perceived ASA than the Australian high school adolescents. In the Japanese sample, women were less sexually active than men and showed greater HIV-risk avoidance confidence on the subscale than men.