How Romantic Relationships Influence Quantity of Friends
Transcript of How Romantic Relationships Influence Quantity of Friends
Running Head: HOW ROMANTIC RELAITONSHIPS INFLUENCE NUMBER OF FRIENDS1
How Romantic Relationships Influence Quantity of Friends
Courtney Erixon
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
HOW ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS INFLUENCE QUANTITY OF FRIENDS 2
Abstract
This study attempts to understand the interaction between relationship status, relationship
seriousness, and relationship length as they relate to the reported number of close friends and the
number of people that the participant thinks would consider them a friend. The purpose of
studying relationship aspects and number of friends is to see whether the well believed notion
that a person is more likely to lose their friends when they engage in a serious and long
relationship compared to when being single or in less serious and short relationships. To do this
we conducted a self-repot survey and completed a 3-way ANOVA. It was found that the reported
number of close friends and the number of close friends that people think would consider them a
close friend are related to relationship aspects very similarly except for the interaction between
relationship seriousness and relationship status. For both dependent variables, participants who
had most recently been in a short relationship reported a greater number of friends than other
relationship length, but only for those whose relationships were very serious. Relationship length
did not matter for people who were currently in a relationship and for single people who were in
not very serious or somewhat serious relationships. More studies on young adults that
investigate how different aspects of romantic relationships relate to number of close friends will
help to understand the conflicts that college students have of whether or not to engage in long
serious relationships.
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How Romantic Relationships Influence Quantity of Friends
The number of close friends that a person has influences their well-being. Through
adolescence, teenagers increasingly start to rely less on their parents for emotional support and
begin to rely more on their friends for support (Bios, 1967). Eventually, close friends become the
primary source of social support and help to form an adolescent’s self concept while having
important effects on their well-being (Furman & Buhrmester, 1992). Specifically, the number of
friends that a person has is an indicator of social competence (Kuttler & La Greca, 2004). In
college, social interaction increases in importance.
It has long been a fear of many college students that they will lose a dear friendship
because the friend has engaged in a romantic relationship. This may be why many single students
try to convince their friends to stay single as well or may even attempt to sabotage their friend’s
relationship. This fear associated with a friend starting a romantic relationship is supported by
some literature but not others. It was found that girls who casually dated had more friends than
girls who had never dated, rarely date, and seriously dated (Kuttler & La Greca, 2004). Another
study found that romantic relationships in adolescents did not have an effect on close peer
relationships (Laursen & Williams, 1997). One downfall of these studies is that they attend only
to relationship status or whether or not the participant is usually in a relationship or not as it
relates to friendship.
Relationships are not all the same though, so studying several aspects of relationships is
beneficial. As adolescents grow older, their romantic relationships may begin to hold more
importance and become more serious (Connolly & Goldberg, 1999). One study of young adults
found that intimate involvement with friends decreased as commitment to romantic relationships
increased (Johnson & Leslie, 1982). Hendrick and Hendrick (1993) have argued that as
HOW ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS INFLUENCE QUANTITY OF FRIENDS 4
relationships become more serious, the romantic partner may start taking over a more “best
friend” role than before.
Another aspect of relationships that may be important is the length of the relationship.
Research suggests that between age 15 and 17, long term relationships start to become more
prevalent (Carver, Joyner, & Udry, 2003). Most would assume that the longer a relationship
lasts, the more serious that the relationship is but that is not always the case so relationship
seriousness as well as relationship length were included in this study. Former research on
relationship lengths has found that for adolescents, those that were in short relationships reported
more support from their best friend than their romantic partner whereas those who were in long-
term relationships reported more support from their romantic partners than their best friends
(Connolly & Johnson, 1996). The amount of support from best friends may translate over to
amount of close friends because support is a major variable of close friendships.
Most studies that are interested in romantic relationships and friendships tend to compare
them to each other (Kuttler & La Greca, 2004). Other studies have tried to investigate how
relationships with parents and friends affect a romantic relationship (Sprecher & Felmlee, 1992).
The few studies that have examined how relationships are related to amount of friends have
focused mostly on adolescents ignoring the adult population. Therefore we conducted this study
on young adults to find out whether the fear of losing a friendship to a romantic relationship is
qualified, and how different aspects of a relationship may interact when looking at amount of
friendships. In this study we looked at the association between length of relationship, seriousness
of relationship, and current relationship status on two different measures of perceived number of
close friends that a person has.
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It was hypothesized that for people who are single and who have most recently had a not
very serious, somewhat serious, or very serious relationship, the number of close friends that
they report will be equivalent for all lengths of their last relationship. Also, for people currently
in a not very serious relationship, the number of close friends that they report will be equivalent
across all lengths of their relationship whereas, for people currently in a somewhat serious or
very serious relationship, the number of close friends that they report will be higher for shorter
relationships. This three-way interaction will also apply to another measure of number of friends
which is how many people the participant thinks would consider them a friend.
Method
Participants
Five hundred thirty-four Undergraduate students from the University of Nebraska-
Lincoln were recruited by a student in an introductory statistics course to participate in the study.
Two hundred twenty-two (41.6%) of the participants were male and three hundred twelve
(58.4%) were female. Of these participants, 483 (82%) were European-American, 34 (6.4%)
were African-American, 11 (2.1%) were Hispanic-American, 5 (0.9%) were Asian-American, 2
(0.4%) were Native-American, and 42 (7.9%) identified themselves as other. Their mean age
was 21.01 falling within a range of 17 and 34 with a standard deviation of 2.11.
Measures
A self-report survey was formed by compiling self-descriptive questions which included
age, gender, number of times moved as a child, type of family raised in, as well as others.
Included in the survey as well, were several scales some of which were the Index of Self-Esteem,
the Compulsiveness Inventory, and the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire. This study focused
on several measures of a relationship, and two measures of friendship. Participants were asked in
HOW ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS INFLUENCE QUANTITY OF FRIENDS 6
the survey if they were currently in a romantic relationship and were presented with a choice of
yes or no. Participants were also asked how serious their current or most recent romantic
relationship was on a scale with 0 being the least serious and 7 being the most serious. It was
also asked how long their current or most recent relationship was in months. Participants
recorded the number of people that they thought of as a close friend and the number of people
that they thought would list them as a close friend.
Both dependent variables are included in this study because even thought they are both
measures of number of friends, they have different implications that they draw about the
participant are different. The definition of a friend according to the Merriam-Webster Online
Dictionary is: 1. a person who you like and enjoy being with; 2. a person who helps or supports
someone or something. The number of close friends that a participant thinks that they have
assesses that how many people they enjoy being around and who are supportive to them. In this
measure, the friend support is coming from the friend and the participant enjoys being with the
friend. The number of people that a participant thinks would consider them a friend assesses how
many people enjoy being around the participant and who also receives support and help from the
participant. In this measure, the friend support is coming from the participant and the friend
enjoys being with the participant.
Procedures
Students in an intro to statistics course filled out the survey themselves and then found
five other undergraduate students each to complete the survey for them. The survey was taken in
the naturalistic setting that the participant happened to be in at the time they filled out the survey.
In order to perform a 3-way ANOVA, relationship seriousness was recoded into not very serious
(0-4), somewhat serious (4-6), and very serious (6-7). Relationship length was recoded into short
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(0-4 months), medium (4-16 months), and long (14-367 months). A 3-way ANOVA was
conducted using relationship status, relationship length, and relationship seriousness as
independent variables and number of people the participant thinks of as close friends and number
of people the participant thinks would list them as a close friend as dependent variables.
Results
There is a significant interaction between length of current or most recent relationship,
seriousness of current or most recent relationship, and whether or not the participant is still in
that relationship or not as they relate to reported number of close friends [F(4,505)=3.077, MSe
=102.934, p = 0.016, r = 0.154]. Figure 1 and Figure 2 show the descriptive statistics. As
hypothesized, for those in a relationship that is not very serious, there is no difference in reported
number of close friends across all relationship lengths. Contrary to the hypothesis, that those in a
somewhat serious or very serious relationship would report a higher number of close friends if
they were in a shorter relationship, there was no difference in reported number of close friends
across relationship length. Also as hypothesized, for single people who were most recently in a
not very serious relationship, the number of reported close friends is equivalent across all
relationship lengths. Contrary to the research hypothesis that for single people who were most
recently in a somewhat serious relationship, those who had a longer relationship would report
less close friends than those who were in a shorter relationship, there was no difference in
reported number of close friends between the relationship lengths. For single people who were
most recently in a very serious relationship, as hypothesized, those who were in a short
relationship reported having more close friends than both those who were in a medium length
relationship and those that were in a long relationship, but contrary to the hypothesis that those
who were in a medium length relationship would report more close friends than those who were
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in a long relationship, there was no difference in reported number of close friends between these
two relationship lengths.
There is a significant interaction between length of current or of most recent relationship,
seriousness of current or most recent relationship, and whether or not the participant is still in
that relationship or not as they relate to the number of people the participant thinks would
consider them a friend [F(4,504)=6.375, MSe =93.103, p <0.001, r = 0.219]. Figure 3 and
Figure 4 show the descriptive statistics. As hypothesized, for those in a relationship that was not
very serious, somewhat serious, or very serious, there is no difference in number of people the
participants thought would consider them a friend across all relationship lengths. Also as
hypothesized, for single people who were most recently in a not very serious relationship, the
number of people the participant thought would consider them a close friend is equivalent across
all relationship lengths. Contrary to the research hypothesis that for single people who were most
recently in a somewhat serious relationship, those who had a longer relationship would report
less people who consider them as a close friend than those who were in a shorter relationship,
there was no difference in reported number of people who consider the participant as a close
friends between the relationship lengths. For single people who were most recently in a very
serious relationship, as hypothesized, those who were in a short relationship reported a greater
number of people that would consider them a close friend than both those who were in a
medium length relationship and those that were in a long relationship, but contrary to the
hypothesis that those who were in a medium length relationship would report more people in
which they thought would consider them a close friends than those who were in a long
relationship, there was no difference in reported number of close friends between these two
relationship lengths.
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There is a significant interaction between relationship length and relationship seriousness
as they relate to reported number of close friends [F(4,505)= 5.826, MSe = 102.934, p <0.001,
r=0.210]. Figure 5 shows the descriptive statistics. For not very serious and somewhat serious
relationships, there is no difference in reported number of close friends between relationships of
different lengths. For very serious relationships, there is no difference in reported number of
close friends between medium and long relationships, but those who were in short relationships
reported having more close friends than both those who were in medium relationships and those
who were in long relationships. The effect is misleading for people in a very serious relationship
who had the same reported number of friends across all relationship lengths.
There is not a significant interaction between relationship status and relationship
seriousness as they relate to reported number of close friends [F(2,505)=2.992, MSe = 102.934,
p = 0.051, r= 0.108]. Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics. This pattern is descriptive for
single people who were in a short relationship, but misleading for everyone else in which there
was no difference in reported number of friends across relationship seriousness.
There is a significant interaction between relationship status and relationship length as
they relate to reported number of close friends [F(2,505)= 3.508, MSe = 102.934, p = 0.031,
r=0.117]. Figure 6 shows the descriptive statistics. For those who were currently in a
relationship, there was no difference in reported number of close friends between different
lengths of the relationship. For single people, there was no difference in reported number of
close friends between those who had most recently had a medium relationship and those who
most recently had a long relationship, however, those who most recently had short relationships
reported more close friends than both those who most recently had a medium or long
relationship. This effect is misleading for single people who most recently had a not very serious
HOW ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS INFLUENCE QUANTITY OF FRIENDS 10
or a somewhat serious relationship in which there was no difference in reported number of close
friends across different lengths of the relationship.
There is a significant interaction between relationship seriousness and relationship length
as they relate to the number of people the participant thinks would consider them a close friend
[F(4,504)=4.259, MSe=93.103, p=0.002, r=0.181]. Figure 7 shows the descriptive statistics. For
those who had a not very serious or a somewhat serious relationship, there was no difference in
the number of people the participant thought would consider them a close friend. For those who
had a very serious relationship, there was no difference in the number of people the participant
thought would consider them a close friend between those with a medium or long relationship
length, but those who had a short relationship, reported a higher number of people that they
thought would consider them a close friend than both those who had a medium or long
relationship. This effect is misleading for the participants who were still engaged in the
described relationship when the data was collected in which there was no difference in the
number of people that the participant thought would consider them a close friend across all
relationship lengths.
There is a significant interaction between relationship status and relationship seriousness
as they relate to the number of people the participants thinks would consider them a close friend
[F(2,504)=4.494, MSe=93.103, p=0.012, r=0.132]. Figure 8 shows the descriptive statistics. For
those who were still in the described relationship whether it was not very serious, somewhat
serious, or very serious, there was no difference in the number of people that the participant
thought would consider them a close friend. For those who were single, participants who most
recently had a not very serious relationship or a somewhat serious relationship, reported an
equivalent number of people who they thought would consider them a close friend, whereas
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those who were most recently in a very serious relationship reported more people who they
thought would consider them a close friend than those who most recently had a not very serious
or somewhat serious relationship. This effect is misleading for those whose described
relationship was of medium or long length whether they were still in that relationship or single in
which there was no difference in reported number of people they thought would consider them a
close friend across all levels of relationship seriousness.
There is a significant interaction between relationship status and relationship length as
they relate to the number of people the participant thinks would consider them a close friend
[F(2,504)=7.068, MSe=93.103, p=0.001, r=0.165]. Figure 9 shows the descriptive statistics. For
those who were still in the described relationship, there was no difference in number of people
that the participant thought would consider them a close friend between all relationship lengths.
For those that were single, there was no difference in number of people that they thought would
consider them a close friend between those who were most recently in a medium or long
relationship, whereas those who were most recently in a short relationship reported a greater
number of people that they thought would consider them a close friend than those who were
most recently in a medium or long relationship. This effect is misleading for those who were in a
not very serious or somewhat serious relationship whether they were still in that relationship or
single, in which there was no difference in number of people that the participant thought would
consider them a close friend between all relationship lengths.
Table 2 shows the descriptive statistics for all main effects. There is a significant main
effect of relationship seriousness as it relates to reported number of close friends [F(2,505)=
11.834, MSe = 102.934, p < 0.001 , r= 0.212]. There was no difference in reported number of
close friends between those who were in a not very serious and somewhat serious relationship
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and those who were in a very serious relationship reported more close friends than both those in
a somewhat serious or not very serious relationship. The main effect is misleading for single
people who were most recently in a medium or long relationship and for all people who were in a
relationship in which there was no difference in reported number of close friends across
relationship seriousness.
There is a significant main effect of relationship length as it relates to reported number of
close friends [F(2,505)= 7.861, MSe = 102.934, p < 0.001 , r= 0.174]. Overall, those with
medium or long relationships reported equivalent number of close friends and those with short
relationship lengths reported more close friends than both those with medium or long
relationships. This main effect is misleading for people who were in not very serious, somewhat
serious, or very serious relationship in which there was no difference in reported number of close
friends across relationship lengths. It is also misleading for single people who were most recently
in a not very serious or somewhat serious relationship in which there was no difference in
reported number of close friends across relationship lengths.
There is a significant main effect of relationship status as it relates to reported number of
close friends [F(1,505)= 7.053, MSe = 102.934, p = 0.008 , r= 0.165]. Overall, those who were
single reported more close friends than those who were in a relationship. This main effect is
misleading for those who were in a not very serious relationship for a short, medium, or long
time in which the number of reported close friends was equivalent for both those who were still
in that relationship and those who were single. The main effect is also misleading for those who
were in a somewhat serious relationship for a short, medium, or long time in which the number
of reported close friends was equivalent for both those who were still in that relationship and
those who were single.
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There is a significant main effect of relationship seriousness as it relates to the number of
people the participant thinks would consider them a close friend [F(2,504)=7.454, MSe=93.103,
p=0.001, r=0.169]. Those who had been in a not very serious or a somewhat serious relationship
reported an equivalent number of people who they thought would consider them a close friend,
whereas those who had been in a very serious relationship reported a greater number of people
that they thought would consider them a close friend than both those who had been in a
somewhat serious or not very serious relationship. This main effect is misleading for single
people who were most recently in a medium or long relationship and for all people who were
still in the described relationship in which there was no difference in the reported number of
people that the participant thought would consider them a close friend across relationship
seriousness.
There is a significant main effect of relationship length as it relates to the number of
people that the participant thinks would consider them a close friend [F(2,504)=5.565,
MSe=93.103, p=0.004, r=0.147]. There is no difference in the number of people who the
participant thought would consider them a close friend between those who had been in a medium
or a long relationship, whereas those who had been in a short relationship reported more people
who they thought would consider them a close friend than those who had been in a medium or
long relationship. This main effect is misleading for those who were still in a not very serious
relationship, a somewhat serious relationship, or a very serious relationship and for those who
were single but who had been in a not very serious relationship or a somewhat serious
relationship in which there was no difference in the number of people who the participant
thought would consider them a close friend across all relationship lengths.
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There is a main significant effect of relationship status as it relates to the number of
people who the participant thinks would consider them a close friend [F(1,504)=16.609,
MSe=93.103, p<0.001, r=0.179]. Those who were still in the relationship that they described
reported less people who they thought would consider them a close friend than those who were
not still engaged in the relationship in which they described. This main effect is misleading for
those who had been in a not very serious or somewhat serious relationship regardless of the
relationship length, and for those who had been in a medium or long very serious relationship in
which there was no difference in the number of people who the participant thought would
consider them a close friend.
Discussion
Both reported number of friends and number of people the participant thought would
consider them a friend have the same interaction of relationship status, relationship length, and
relationship seriousness. Single people who had been in a very serious relationship thought they
had more close friends and was a close friend to more people when their most recent relationship
had been short compared to medium or long which had equivalent friend numbers. For everyone
else, participants thought they had the same number of close friends and was a close friend to the
same number of people for all relationship lengths.
It is important to note the several power problems that are present in this 3-way ANOVA
when using reported number of friends as the dependent variable. For those who were currently
in a very serious relationship, when comparing those whose relationship was short to those
whose relationship was medium in length, there was less than .30 power, meaning that there was
more than a 70 percent chance of a Type II error in which we incorrectly retained the null
hypothesis that there was no difference in reported number of close friends between the two
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conditions. In order to have adequate power of .80, allowing only a 20 percent chance of a Type
II error, we would have needed to have 60 participants in each condition. Also, for those who
were currently in a very serious relationship, when comparing those whose relationship was short
and those whose relationship was long, there was less than .60 power, meaning that there was
more than a 40 percent chance of a Type II error in which we incorrectly retained the null
hypothesis that there was no difference in reported number of close friends between the two
conditions. In order to have adequate power, we would have needed 60 participants in each
condition. Another power problem occurred when comparing those with medium and long
relationships for those who were single and had most recently been in a very serious relationship.
The power was less than .20 power which means there was over 90 percent chance that we
incorrectly retained that there was no difference in reported number of friends between the two
conditions. In order to have adequate power, we would have needed to have 172 participants in
each condition.
The 3-way interaction using the dependent variable of how many people that the
participant thinks would consider them a close friend also had power problems. Like the other
dependent variable, those who were currently in a very serious relationship, when comparing
short and medium relationship lengths, the power was less than .20 meaning there was more than
an 80 percent chance that a Type II error was made. In this case, we would have had 172 people
in each condition to have sufficient power. Another power problem occurred when comparing
short and medium relationship lengths of those who were single and whose most recently
relationship was somewhat serious. The result that the two groups had the same number of
people that they thought would consider them a friend had a more than 70 percent chance that
there was a difference in number of friends but that we missed it. To have sufficient power we
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would have needed 172 people in each condition. Finally, for single participants who were most
recently in a very serious relationship, when comparing medium to long relationship lengths,
there was over a 60 percent chance that a Type II error was made and to have enough power we
would have needed 172 people in each condition.
Both dependent variables had the same patterns of interactions and main effects
excluding the interaction of relationship status and relationship seriousness. The following
summarizes the relationships of number of friends and number of people the participant thought
would consider them a friend with relationship status, relationship length, and relationship
seriousness. Disregarding relationship status, there was no difference in either dependent
variable when comparing relationship length except for those who were in a very serious
relationship in which they had more close friends and were also close friends to more people if
they were in a short relationship compared to a medium or long relationship where there was no
difference in either of the two dependent variable measurements. Disregarding relationship
seriousness, there was no difference in either dependent variable when comparing relationship
length except for single people in which those who were in short relationships had more close
friends and were close friends and were close friends to more people than those who had been in
a medium or long relationship in which there wasn’t a difference in either dependent variable.
The main effect of relationship seriousness showed that those with a very serious relationship
had more close friends and were close friends to more people than those with a somewhat serious
or not very serious relationship in which there was no difference in either of the two dependent
variables. The main effect of relationship length showed that those with a short relationship had
more close friends and were close friends to more people than those with a medium or long
relationship in which there was no difference in either of the two dependent variables. The main
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effect of relationship status showed that those who were single at the time of data collection
reported having more close friends and being a close friend to more people than those who were
in a relationship at the time of data collection.
There was not an interaction between relationship status and relationship seriousness as
they relate to reported number of close friends, but there was an interaction between relationship
status and relationship seriousness as they relate to number of people the participant thought
would consider them a close friend. Overall the effect size of the interaction between relationship
status and relationship seriousness as they relate to reported number of close friends is small
enough to not worry about, and within the interaction, there are no power problems. There are no
power problems in the interaction between relationship status and relationship seriousness as
they relate to the number of people that the participant thought would consider them a close
friend. The difference in patterns of the two dependent variables shows that those who were
currently in a very serious relationship thought that they had more close friends than the number
of friends those in a somewhat or not very serious relationship thought they had, but that all
people who were currently in a relationship thought that they were close friends to the same
number of people.
This study does not support the claim that romantic relationships in adolescents did not
have an effect on close peer relationships since almost all of the interactions and main effects
were significant, but does support the claim somewhat because for people in a relationship there
is no difference in reported number of friends or number of people that they think would
consider them a friend (Laursen & Williams, 1997). The reason that people in relationships do
not show a difference in number of close friends or number of people they think would consider
them a close friend is probably due to power problems. The results do not support the finding of
HOW ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS INFLUENCE QUANTITY OF FRIENDS 18
Johnson and Leslie (1982) that as commitment to romantic relationships increase that
commitment to friendships decrease. Our study found that people who had very serious
relationships reported more close friends and more people that they think would consider them a
close friend than both those with a not very serious or somewhat serious relationship. Some
people may lose touch with their friends as a romantic relationship gets more serious, but as a
romantic relationship gets more serious, people are more likely to meet their partner’s friends
which could add to their close friend list. The finding that participants with short relationships
had more close friends than those with a medium or long relationship is consistent with Connolly
and Johnson’s (1996) finding that those in short relationship report more support from their best
friends than their partner, and those in long relationships report more support from their partner
than their best friends.
More research needs to be done on how relationships are associated with number of
friends on young people. More research is done focusing on adolescents and married couples, but
it is a concern for many young people on whether or not to be in a relationship because of the
effects that it has on their friendships. A study using more participants would solve the power
problems that showed up in the 3-way interactions. Studying the difference in results of the
interaction of relationship status and relationship seriousness for reported number of close
friends and number of people that the participant think would consider them a close friend may
help explain why the interaction of relationship seriousness and relationship status relates
differently to these two dependent variables.
HOW ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS INFLUENCE QUANTITY OF FRIENDS 19
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Sprecher, S., & Felmlee, D. (1992). The influence of parents and friends on the quality and
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Marriage And The Family, 54(4), 888-900. doi:10.2307/353170
HOW ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS INFLUENCE QUANTITY OF FRIENDS 21
Table 1
Summary of Reported Number of Friends as it is Related to Relationship Status and Relationship
Seriousness
Relationship Status In a Relationship Single
Relationship Seriousness Mean Std. Error N Mean Std. Error N
Not very 5.421 1.812 42 7.378 1.465 164
Somewhat 6.447 1.119 102 6.737 1.112 94
Very 10.756 1.588 104 20.402 3.101 17
HOW ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS INFLUENCE QUANTITY OF FRIENDS 22
Table 2
Summary of two Measures of Number of Friends for each Relationship Aspect
Relationship Aspects
Relationship Status
In a relationship
Single
Relationship Length
Short
Medium
Long
Relationship Seriousness
Not very
Somewhat
Very
Number of reported close
friends
Number of people think would
consider them a close friend
Mean Std. Error N
Mean Std. Error N
7.541 0.885 248
11.506 1.202 275
13.642 1.291 198
7.696 1.412 159
7.232 1.163 166
6.400 1.165 206
6.592 0.789 275
15.579 1.742 121
6.696 0.843 247
12.485 1.143 275
12.900 1.228 198
8.052 1.345 158
7.819 1.106 166
6.825 1.108 206
7.758 0.750 196
14.188 1.658 120
HOW ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS INFLUENCE QUANTITY OF FRIENDS 23
Figure 1. Number of reported close friends for those in a relationship as it relates to relationship length and relationship
seriousness.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
short medium long
Nu
mb
er
of
rep
ort
ed
clo
se f
rie
nd
s
Relationship Length
not very
somewhat
very
In a relationship
Relationship seriousness
HOW ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS INFLUENCE QUANTITY OF FRIENDS 24
Figure 2. Number of reported close friends for those who are single as it relates to relationship length and relationship
seriousness.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
short medium long
Nu
mb
er
of
rep
ort
ed
clo
se f
rie
nd
s
Relationship length
not very
somewhat
very
Single
Relationship seriousness
HOW ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS INFLUENCE QUANTITY OF FRIENDS 25
Figure 3. Number of people those in a relationship thought would consider them a close friend as it relates to relationship
seriousness and relationship length.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
short medium long
Nu
mb
er
of
pe
op
le y
ou
th
ink
wo
uld
co
nsi
de
r yo
u a
clo
se f
rie
nd
Relationship length
not very
somewhat
very
Relationship seriousness
HOW ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS INFLUENCE QUANTITY OF FRIENDS 26
Figure 4. Number of people those who are single thought would consider them a close friend as it relates to relationship
seriousness and relationship length.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
short medium long
Nu
mb
er
of
pe
op
le y
ou
th
ink
wo
uld
co
nsi
de
r yo
u a
clo
se f
rie
nd
Relationship length
not very
somewhat
very
Single
Relationship seriousness
HOW ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS INFLUENCE QUANTITY OF FRIENDS 27
Figure 5. Number of reported close friends as it relates to relationship length and relationship seriousness.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
short medium long
Nu
mb
er
of
rep
ort
ed
clo
se f
rie
nd
s
Relationship length
not very
somewhat
very
Relationship seriousness
HOW ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS INFLUENCE QUANTITY OF FRIENDS 28
Figure 6. Number of reported close friends as it relates to relationship length and relationship status.
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
short medium long
Nu
mb
er
of
rep
ort
ed
clo
se f
rie
nd
s
Relationship length
In a relationship
Single
Relationship status
HOW ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS INFLUENCE QUANTITY OF FRIENDS 29
Figure 3. Number of people that college students thought would consider them a close friend as it relates to relationship
seriousness and relationship length.
0
5
10
15
20
25
short medium long
Nu
mb
er
of
pe
op
le y
ou
th
ink
wo
uld
co
nsi
de
r yo
u a
clo
se f
rie
nd
Relationship length
not very
somewhat
very
Relationship seriousness
HOW ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS INFLUENCE QUANTITY OF FRIENDS 30
Figure 4. Number of people that college students thought would consider them a close friend as it relates to relationship
status and relationship seriousness.
0
5
10
15
20
25
not very serious
somewhat serious
very serious
Nu
mb
er
of
pe
op
le y
ou
th
ink
wo
uld
co
nsi
de
r yo
u a
clo
se f
rie
nd
Relationship seriousness
In a relationship
Single
Relationship status
HOW ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS INFLUENCE QUANTITY OF FRIENDS 31
Figure 5. Number of people that college students thought would consider them a close friend as it relates to relationship
status and relationship length.
0
5
10
15
20
25
short medium long
Nu
mb
er
of
pe
op
le y
ou
th
ink
wo
uld
co
nsi
de
r yo
u a
clo
se f
rie
nd
Relationship length
In a relationship
Single
Relationship status