The purpose of this study was to determine how status was indicated by the use of directives in homogeneous groups of adolescent females and whether differences in status designation existed which could be attributed to either class or ethnicity. Three groups of ten to twelve-year-olds (middle-class white, working-class white, and working-class black) completed twenty-four natural interactions, providing 983 directives and 200 randomly selected responses. An index was developed to assess the coercion of the directives and compliance of responses, and the resulting analysis provided a coercion level mean for each participant which was compared to her sociometric rank by the Spearman Rank Coefficient of Correlation. A similar comparison was calculated between the sociometric rank and number of directives issued and received and the compliance of responses issued and received. A second analysis used chi squares to compare the selection of component options within the possibilities for directive construction by each girl to every other girl in her group and across group lines to girls in the same status position. Findings indicated that some uses of directives to indicate status could be attributed to socioeconomic class and some to ethnicity and that specific component selections were associated with sociometric status regardless of class or ethnicity. (Author)