Abstract
The purpose of this study was to identify secondary school leaders' preferred responses to gossip (RTG) and to examine the relationship between their attitudes towards gossip (ATG) and preferred RTG in public secondary schools in Southern California. This exploratory study used 2 rounds of online surveys. In Part I, 29 school leaders identified their preferred RTG. The leaders' responses were content analyzed to produce 37 descriptions of RTG. In Part II, 101 secondary school leaders completed the ATG scale (Litman & Pezzo, 2005) and rated their use of the 37 possible RTG. The results were analyzed to identify preferred RTG (ranked by mean preference) and the relationship between ATG and the 37 RTG. Factor analysis reduced the descriptions of RTG to a smaller number of prototypical responses. The most preferred responses fell into four categories: protect, evaluate,reflect, and correct. Mean ATG levels, including the social and moral (SV and MV) subscales suggested that school leaders have slightly negative ATG. Correlations between the ATG, including subscales, and the 37 RTG found that the ATG total score was moderately correlated (r > .30, p < .05) with nine of the 37 RTGs, mostly relating to responses that discourage gossip. Individual patterns of correlation with the SV and MV subscales of the ATG are presented and vary slightly from the correlations with the ATG total. Through principal components analysis, the 37 RTG were reduced to 11 more parsimonious factors. Two of the 11 RTG factors were moderately to strongly correlated (p < .001) to the ATG total score, with both RTG factors relating to discouraging gossip. School leaders have slightly negative attitudes to the MV and SV of gossip. The 37 RTG ranked by mean provide insight on the most preferred RTG. ATG predict some RTG, but it is evident that many preferred RTG would be used by leaders regardless of their ATG. These findings increase understanding of school leaders' RTG that might be shared with them and can enhance school leadership professional development. Further research is recommended to develop a RTG scale and provide additional RTG training for school.