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Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, Vol. 17, No. 1, 67-94 (2000)
DOI: 10.1177/0265407500171004
© 2000 SAGE Publications

Motives to Remain Platonic, Equity, and the Use of Maintenance Strategies in Opposite-Sex Friendships

Susan J. Messman

Pennsylvania State University, sjml4{at}psu.edu

Daniel J. Canary

Arizona State University

Kimberley S. Hause

Houston, TX, USA

This study examined maintenance strategies used by hetero-sexual participants in opposite-sex friendships. Individual reasons for adhering to a platonic relational definition and equity were used to predict maintenance behaviors. Factor analyses revealed six reasons for maintaining opposite-sex friendships as platonic: Not Attracted, Network Disapproval, Time Out, Safeguard Relationship, Third Party, and Risk Aversion. Relying on equity theory, we also investigated maintenance strategies of Support, No Flirting, Share Activity, Openness, Avoidance, and Positivity according to equity group membership. Finally, both motives and inequity (overbenefitedness and underbenefitedness) were associated with the use of six maintenance strategies. Results revealed that positive and proactive maintenance behaviors were used in equitable (versus under-or overbenefited) friendships and that reasons for maintaining the platonic nature of opposite-sex friendships predict maintenance strategies that friends employ. In particular, Safeguard Relationship was a consistent predictor of maintenance behaviors. (ln)equity also predicted the use of four maintenance strategies. Overall, support was found for using people's motives in conjunction with equity to predict relational maintenance strategies of opposite-sex friends.

Key Words: equity • maintenance • opposite-sex friendship


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