Relationship maintenance across platonic and non-platonic cross-sex friendships in emerging adults
Summary & key facts
Researchers surveyed 531 U.S. emerging adults about one opposite-sex friendship they had and asked how often they did 36 common relationship-maintenance actions. People in casual-sex friendships (friends with benefits) reported the fewest maintenance behaviors. Platonic friends used more maintenance than casual-sex friends but less than ongoing friends-with-benefits and those who later became romantic partners. The highest maintenance was reported by participants whose friends-with-benefits relationship later turned into a romantic relationship.
- The study used an online survey of 531 emerging adults from large southwestern and southeastern U.S. universities.
- Participants identified one opposite-sex friendship as either platonic or friends with benefits and then reported frequency for 36 relationship-maintenance behaviors.
- Casual-sex friendships (friends with benefits) showed the lowest frequency of relationship-maintenance behaviors among the groups studied.
- Platonic cross-sex friendships showed more maintenance behaviors than casual-sex friendships but fewer than both ongoing friends-with-benefits and friendships that later became romantic relationships.
- Participants whose friends-with-benefits relationship transitioned into a romantic relationship reported the most frequent use of relationship-maintenance behaviors.
Abstract
Prior research examining maintenance in cross-sex friendships focuses heavily on platonic (i.e., nonsexually active) friendships with limited research examining sexually involved cross-sex friendships (i.e., "friends with benefits relationships"). In this study, we investigated differences in relational maintenance behaviors between sexually and nonsexually active cross-sex friendships types. In an online survey, 531 emerging adult participants from large southwestern and southeastern universities identified either a friends with benefits or platonic opposite sex friendship and then completed items asking them to report the frequency with which they enacted each of 36 relationship maintenance behaviors. Overall, participants involved in casual sex friendships engaged in the least, and those who transitioned from a friends-with-benefits relationship to a romantic relationship engaged in the most frequent relationship maintenance. Platonic friendships employed more frequent maintenance than casual-sex friendships but less than either true friends with benefits or participants who transitioned to a romantic relationship.
