Maintenance behaviors can be used to keep relationships at desired states of closeness
"First-year college students are challenged to develop and maintain new friendship networks."
"From an exchange perspective, maintenance behaviors can be conceptualized as investments people make into relationships. Individuals invest into their relationship throughout the process of relationship development. "
"maintenance behaviors are not only vehicles by which people sustain relationships but they also predict whether relationships get closer or de-escalate over time."
How to maintain friendships:
“ Stafford and Canary (1991) uncovered five common prosocial maintenance behaviors: positivity, which involves being pleasant and cheerful; openness, which includes ‘‘direct discussion and listening to each other’’ assurances, which are expressions of commitment and comfort; social networking, which refers to communicating with each other’s family and friends; and task sharing, which involves sharing chores or other tasks in a fair and equitable manner.”
"Bryant and Marmo (2010) found that communicating via Facebook was enough to maintain casual friendships but not close friendships"
"Friends also help people better understand their environments by supplying information. Finally, friends help individuals carry out instrumental goals and meet day-to-day needs"
Work Cited
McEwan, Bree, and Laura K. Guerrero. “Maintenance Behavior and Relationship Quality as
Predictors of Perceived Availability of Resources in Newly Formed College Friendship
Networks.” Communication Studies, vol. 63, no. 4, 2012, pp. 421–440.