Kathy Sigler, an independent scholar who earned a master’s degree from NDSU; Ann Burnett, associate professor and director of women’s studies; and Jeff Child, former NDSU doctoral student and now assistant professor at Kent State University, have written an article titled “A Regional Analysis of Assertiveness.”

The article was published in the July 2008 Journal of International Communication Research and it explores the implications of regional differences in assertiveness. The study for the article compared students from the upper Midwest to students in the New York metropolitan area. The results were that metropolitan New York students reported significantly higher levels of assertive communication than their counterparts in the upper Midwest. Males in the upper Midwest reported significantly higher levels of assertive communication than females from the same region.