Gender Patterns in African American and White Adolescents' Social Interactions in Same-Race, Mixed-Gender Groups

Gender-related interaction patterns on a cooperative problem-solving task were compared in African American and White mixed-gender groups of adolescents, matched on age, socioeconomic status, and school achievement. Hierarchically nested analyses of variance revealed significant interaction effects indicating greater gender equality in the African American groups than in the White groups for a composite measure of all variables, for the measure of level of activity, and for 1 of 2 measures of level of influence, but not for measures of speech form. Post hoc analyses revealed significant gender differences in the White groups for the composite measure, the level of influence measures, 1 speech-form measure, and the level of activity measure (nearly significant) and in the African American groups only for 2 speech-form measures. Results are discussed in terms of social role theory.