Maintenance Behavior and Relationship Quality as Predictors of Perceived Availability of Resources in Newly Formed College Friendship Networks

Abstract

First-year college students are challenged to develop and maintain new friendship networks. This study, informed by an exchange perspective, tests a conceptual model that specifies how relational maintenance, friendship quality, and perceived availability of network resources are associated in newly formed friendship networks. Results from structural equation modeling suggest that, for casual friendships, the association between maintenance and the perceived availability of resources is mediated by the quality of one's casual friendship network. For close friendship networks, reported maintenance behavior was both directly and indirectly associated with the perceived availability of resources. There were also differences between close and casual friendship networks, with students reporting more maintenance behavior in close friendships, and with different behaviors associated with maintenance in close friendship networks than casual friendship networks.

Keywords:

• First-year College Students
• Friendship
• Relational Maintenance
• Relationship Quality
• Resources
• Social Network

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the other members of the dissertation committee, Daniel Canary and Elizabeth Capaldi, for their feedback and help with this project. A version of this article was presented at the annual conference of the National Communication Association, San Francisco, CA, November 2010.

Notes

Note. Bivariate correlations for close friends are outside of parentheses. Bivariate correlations for casual friends are within parentheses. Cronbach's alpha for maintenance items are reported in Table 1.

*p < .05. **p < .01. All other correlations are significant at the p < .001, two-tailed.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bree McEwan

Bree McEwan is an Assistant Professor in the Communication Department at Western Illinois University.

Laura K. Guerrero

Laura K. Guerrero is a Professor in the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication. This article is based on the first author's dissertation, which was directed by the second author.