Family counselor interaction patterns as related to client gender: Differences in treatment of school-age girls and boys

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether counselors differed in their interaction patterns when counseling school-age girls as compared to school-age boys when measured by the communication categories of indirect-statements (feeling statements), direct statements (information statements), interrupting the client, and being interrupted by the client. Videotapes of counseling sessions were made from existing videotapes of counseling sessions conducted by the staff of the PACES Family Counseling Center at The College of William and Mary. Sections of 50 counseling sessions were used, plus two more sections to determine inter-rater reliability.;Five videotapes were made, each consisting of ten different five-minute sections of counseling sessions, and two five-minute sections that were identical on each of the five videotapes. Volunteers who were familiar with the Interaction Analysis (IA), Adapted Flanders for Counseling, used the IA to assess the interaction patterns between counselors and their school-age clients.;Measures of the differences in the use of indirect statements, direct statements, the counselor interrupting the client, and the client interrupting the counselor were statistically analyzed to determine if counselors had interaction patterns that differed when working with school-age girls when compared to working with school-age boys. Statistically significant differences were found between the use of indirect statements with school-age boys and girls, the use of direct statements with school-age girls and boys, the counselor interrupting the client, and the client interrupting the counselor. In addition, statistically significant differences were found between the amount of talking done by school-age girls and school-age boys during counseling sessions. Statistically significant differences were found between the amount of talking done by counselors during counseling sessions with school-age girls as compared to sessions with school-age boys.;The results of the study indicate that counselors use more indirect statements with school-age girls, and more direct statements with school-age boys during counseling sessions. Counselors interrupt school-age girls more often during counseling sessions than they do school-age boys. School-age boys interrupt counselors more often during counseling sessions than school-age girls do. School-age girls talk more during counseling sessions than school-age boys do. Counselors talk more during sessions with school-age girls than they do during sessions with school-age boys