Cohesion, communication burden, and response adequacy in adolescent conversations

Discourse measures of cohesion, communication burden, and response adequacy were studied in adolescent conversational dyads. Participants were 50 typically developing African American and Caucasian adolescents (25 males and 25 females), ages 13 to 21 years. The effects of age, race, and gender of the speaker on the discourse measures were explored. No significant effects of these factors were found; however, the results indicated that most adolescents had high cohesion, shared the burden of conversation equally, and provided adequate responses. The results are discussed in terms of application to clinical populations.