The study investigated the influence of Defensive Pessimism and Assertiveness on Civic Engagement among rural dwellers in AkwaIbom State. Four hundred and thirty two (432) participants were randomly selected from five local government in AkwaIbom State(Abak, Itu, OrukAnam, IkotEKpene and Oron local government areas)consisting of 217males and 215females. Their age range range were from 18- 65 and their mean age was 41.5. A 2x2 factorial design was adopted for the study. Three instruments were used in the study: Defensive Pessimism Questionnaire (DPQ) developed by Norem and Canton (1986), Rathus Assertiveness Schedule developed by Spencer Rathus (1973) and Civic Engagement Scale (CES) developed by Doolittle and Faul (2013). A two way Analyses of Variance (ANOVA) was used to analyse the data. The result showed that there is no significant influence of defensive pessimism on civic engagement among rural dwellers. The result also revealed that there is a significant influence of assertiveness on civic engagement among rural dwellers [F(1, 428)= 7.00, p< .05]. The result also revealed that there is no interaction influence between defensive pessimism and assertiveness on civic engagement among rural dwellers. It was therefore concluded that assertiveness is a predictor of civic engagement among rural dwellers. Implications and recommendations for future study were made.