Changes in Friendship Commitment: Comparing Geographically Close and Long-Distance Young-Adult Friendships

Abstract

The existence of long-distance (LD) friendships throws into question assumptions that scholars of interpersonal communication often make about commitment to relationships, the development of relationships, and friendships. An analysis of turning points comparing commitment changes in young-adult geographically close and LD same-sex friendships revealed high and fluctuating levels of commitment over the history of the friendships for both types. Over 80% of those having LD friends reported their levels of commitment were currently increasing, rather than decreasing. Women were more likely than men to report nonlinear trajectories for their friendships, more downturns in commitment to their friendships, and more turning points related to changes in commitment to their friendships.

Keywords:

• Friendship
• Long-Distance Relationships
• Relational Commitment

A former version of this article was presented to the Interpersonal Communication Division of the International Communication Association for their annual meeting in Dresden, Germany, June, 2006.

Notes

Note. df = 99 for all variables, except for couple identity (df = 97). GC = geographically close; LD = long distance.

∗p < .05. ∗∗p < .01. ∗∗∗p < .001.

Elsewhere, Becker et al. (2009) reported results for different hypotheses using data collected at the same time as the data used for this study. This other study focused on shifts in friendship level (casual, close, and best) and, unlike our study, not on the subdimensions of commitment, how commitment changed across relational trajectories, the number of turning points, and biological gender.

Participants indicated whether they had ever lived in close proximity to their long-distance (LD) friend—88 said they had, 11 said they had not, and 1 did not respond. Of the 11 LD friends who never lived geographically close (GC), 7 (64%) were men and 4 (36%) were women. Of the 88 who had lived in proximity to their LD friend, the mean length of geographical separation was 40 months (SD = 37.86); however, these data were skewed because of extreme scores. The median was 28 months. The top five turning point categories for LD friends who had never lived close (number in parentheses represents the average proportion of turning points reported by each person falling into that category) were as follows: participate in activity due to situation or circumstance (0.13), visit (0.12), take trips together (0.11), increase in geographic distance (0.09), and decrease in contact (not related to distance; 0.08). The top five turning points for LD friends who had once been GC were as follows: participate in activity due to circumstance or situation (0.18), increase in geographical distance (0.16), participate in activity to spend time together (0.09), sharing living quarters (0.06), and visit (0.05). Due to similarity and the small number of LD friends who had never been GC, all LD relationships were collapsed in subsequent analyses.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amy Janan Johnson

Amy Janan Johnson (PhD, Michigan State University, 1999) is an associate professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Oklahoma.

Jennifer A. H. Becker

Jennifer A. H. Becker (PhD, University of Oklahoma, 2005) is a lecturer in the Communication and Journalism Department at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire.

Elizabeth A. Craig

Elizabeth A. Craig (PhD, University of Oklahoma, 2008) is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at North Carolina State University.

Eileen S. Gilchrist

Eileen S. Gilchrist (PhD, University of Oklahoma, 2009) is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Wyoming.

Michel M. Haigh

Michel M. Haigh (PhD, University of Oklahoma, 2006) is an assistant professor in the College of Communications at the Pennsylvania State University.