268 Benefits and Maintenance of Friendships
Relationship maintenance is conceptualized both as the phase in between initia-
tion and termination of the relationship and also as a process. That is, once a rela-
tionship has been formed the individuals must engage in behaviors that function
to sustain the relationship to the individuals’ satisfaction. Although not as exciting
as friendship initiation or as distressing as termination, the maintenance phase is,
hopefully, the longest phase of the friendship.
Friendship Maintenance Behaviors
Relationship maintenance is generally conceived as behaviors that occur between
the initiation and termination of the relationship (e.g., Dindia & Canary, 1993).
Although the specific goal of maintenance behaviors can vary, relationship research-
ers generally conceive of maintenance as behaviors that people engage in to “keep
a relationship in existence, to keep a relationship at a specific state or condition, to
keep a relationship in satisfactory condition, and to keep a relationship in repair”
(Dindia & Canary, 1993, p. 163). This variation in the goal of relationship mainte-
nance is interesting to note as people may vary in the desired degree of closeness or
intimacy that they want from that friendship. Thus, friendship maintenance behav-
iors might be used in different ways depending on the underlying motivations of the
person in the friendship. Furthermore, these behaviors can occur routinely or be
used strategically (Dainton & Aylor, 2002; Dainton & Stafford, 1993). For example,
someone might strategically engage in a behavior when one realizes that the rela-
tionship is in deterioration and in need of specific intervention. Alternatively, many
of these behaviors might routinely occur throughout the relationship and without
any specific intention or motivation. This routine use of maintenance behaviors
reflect reasons such as internalization of relationship importance or prosocial val-
ues, and also serve to promote the successful continuation of the friendship.
In the initial research identifying friendship maintenance behaviors, Oswald,
Clark, and Kelly (2004) conducted an exploratory factor analysis of 45 types of
possible maintenance activities. These activities were identified in research based
on romantic maintenance (e.g., Dainton & Staford, 1993; Stafford & Canary,
1991) as well as behaviors identified as important for friendships (e.g., Fehr, 1996;
Hays, 1984). Based on exploratory factor analysis, Oswald and colleagues found
four key maintenance behaviors for friendships: supportiveness, positivity, open-
ness, and interaction. The first factor identified in the exploratory factor analysis was
labeled “positivity” (accounting for 30.70% of the variance) and included behaviors
that make the relationship rewarding (e.g., express thanks when one friend does some-
thing nice for the other and try to be upbeat and cheerful when together) as well as not
engaging in antisocial behaviors that would negatively affect the friendship (e.g.,
not returning each other’s messages). The second factor identified was “supportive-
ness” (accounting for 18.51% of the variance) and included behaviors that involved