SELF-DISCLOSURE AND LISTENER VERBAL SUPPORT IN SAME-GENDER AND CROSS-GENDER FRIENDS CONVERSATIONS

Self-disclosure and listener support were examined in conversations be tween same-gender and cross-gender friends. participants were universi ty students (mean age = 19 years) from mostly middle-class European-Am erican backgrounds. Each pair of friends was asked to discuss how thei r relationships with their respective families had changed since enter ing college. Self-disclosures and listener verbal responses were coded from transcripts of the taped conversations. Coded listener responses ranged in how explicitly they acknowledged and supported the friend's disclosure. The Kraemer-Jacklin statistic was used to test for speake r gender partner gender and interaction effects: First, contrary to ex pectation, men made more disclosures than did women. Second, clarifica tion questions were more likely in response to disclosures from male f riends than female friends. Finally women used more active understandi ng responses with female friends than did women with male friends, men with female friends, or men with male friends. Taken together the res ults highlight ways in which women and men may express intimacy and sh ow support differently depending on both the speaker's gender and the partner's gender.