Communication Patterns of African American Girls and Boys from Low‐Income, Urban Backgrounds

Abstract

This study investigated gender effects on the conversational strategies used among 106 African American children ( mean age ϭ 7 years) from urban, low-income family backgrounds. Same-and mixed-gender pairs of children from the same grade level in an inner-city school were provided with toy bear puppets and asked to play together for 5 min. Conversations were coded using Leaper's Psychosocial Processes Coding Scheme, which classifies communication acts as either collaborative, controlling, informing, obliging, or withdrawing. Girls and boys were more similar than different. However, gender-related variations were found. Boys were more likely than girls to use controlling acts and domineering exchanges in same-gender pairs but not in mixed-gender pairs. Girls were more likely than boys to use a combination of collaborative and informing acts. For partner gender effects we found that controlling acts and domineering exchanges were less likelywhereas informing acts were more likely-to take place when children were matched with a girl than when they were matched with a boy. Findings replicate many of the gender effects on communication style reported in a prior study (Leaper, 1991) that used a similar procedure and coding strategy with a sample of middle-income children from mostly European American backgrounds.

Gender differences in adolescents' self-concepts of assertion and affiliation

“…Our findings for ratings of ''myself with a close same-sex peer'' suggest that the gender differentiation which develops in same-sex dyads and groups in childhood (Leaper, 1991;Leaper et al, 1999;Maccoby, 1998) persists in heightened form in this context into adolescence. The fact that this was the only role in which boys' assertive ratings were significantly higher than girls', however, suggests that general conclusions about gender differences should not be drawn from studies that only consider this context.…”

A Meta-Analytic Review of Gender Variations in Adults' Language Use: Talkativeness, Affiliative Speech, and Assertive Speech

“…There were no average differences in informing speech. Perhaps this should not be a surprise given this is a relatively neutral speech act (e.g., see Leaper, Tenenbaum, & Shaffer, 1999). Average gender differences were also negligible for directives and disagreements, which were surprising given that these were the most power-assertive speech forms.…”

“…Some notable examples include task-oriented and socioemotional activity (Bales, 1950), instrumental and expressive behavior (Parsons & Bales, 1955), dominance and love (Leary, 1957), control and affection (Schutz, 1958), agency and communion (Bakan, 1966), power and affiliation (McClelland, 1987;Wiggins, 1973), and other-transforming and selftransforming orientations (Selman & Demorest, 1984), respectively. Although assertion and affiliation are not mutually exclusive psychological acts, they can be viewed as separate dimensions (see Leaper, 1991Leaper, , 1994Leaper, , 2000aLeaper, Tenenbaum, & Shaffer, 1999;Penman, 1980). According to this scheme, a speech act may be both assertive and affiliative when it is collaborative.…”

Parent–Child Conversational Styles in Middle Childhood: Gender and Social Class Differences

“…Studies of children's interactions with peers suggest a different pattern, however. In one study, both boys and girls observed in same-age peer interactions used more affiliative speech with same-gender peers than in cross-gender interactions (Leman et al 2005), and in another, both boys and girls used a more affiliative style when the conversational partner was female (Leaper et al 1999). The most consistent findings of studies examining sex of child differences in parent speech are that mothers talk more with daughters than with sons and show more differentiation in their speech with daughters and sons than fathers do (Lanvers 2004).…”