A new study revealed the nature of cross-sex friendships for both young adults and middle-aged adults.

April Bleske-Rechek, assistant professor of psychology, teamed up with students to research what different sexes and age groups had to say about attraction among friends.

“Those who were more attracted to opposite sex friends were less satisfied with their current relationships,” Bleske-Rechek said. Specifically, young adults were more attracted to their opposite-sex friends than middle-aged adults.

The research reported middle-aged women and men did not differ in their reported attraction to their opposite-sex friends. Also, young-adult men reported stronger attraction to their cross-sex friends than young females, Bleske- Rechek said.

In the study, “Attraction in Young Adults and Middle-Aged Adults Cross Sex Friendships,” individuals told researchers about a specific opposite sex friend who was not a romantic partner or related to them in any way, even through the marriage of a relative. Of the middle-aged adults sampled, 90 percent were seriously involved in a relationship or married, Bleske-Rechek said.

“There’s nothing out so far like this,” she said, “It’s the first time we’ve had a good size sample of people in romantic relationships who can tell us about their friendships.”

According to the university press release, 42 men and 65 women ages 18 to 23, and 52 men and 90 women ages 27 to 52 were surveyed. Participants used 32 variables to rate how each contributed to the maintenance of the friendship they had.

Bleske-Rechek and her students will share these findings May 1 at the 80th annual Midwestern Psychological Association Conference in Chicago. Their study will also be broadcast May 5 on Wisconsin Public Radio.

Another study called, “The Good and the Bad of Friendship,” explored the ways in which friendships can both enhance and complicate someone’s life, Bleske-Rechek said. This research reported that jealousy is a big issue for middle-aged adults, she said.

Bleske-Rechek said the combining of the two studies provide good insight but cannot answer the ultimate question of what factor comes first, the attraction to cross-sex friends or the dissatisfaction in the relationship.

“It raises a lot of questions about whether or not the variables are causally related.”