Gender differences in topical coherence: Creating involvement in best friends' talk

Analyzing videotapes recorded by Bruce Dorval in which 2nd‐, 6th‐, and 10th‐grade same‐sex best friends talked to each other for 20 minutes in an experimental setting, the study examines gender differences in topical coherence through the lens of John Gumperz's framework for cross‐cultural communication. The girls exhibit minimal or no difficulty finding something to talk about, and they talk about a small number of topics, all related to troubles. There is more concern among the girls with avoidance of anger and disagreement. The boys exhibit more discomfort with the situation. The two younger pairs of boys produce small amounts of talk about a great number of topics. The 10th‐grade boys talk about highly personal topics, but each develops his own topic and minimizes the other's. These differences in ways of creating involvement can account for frustrations in cross‐gender conversations without blaming either gender for communication failure.