been found to spend a considerable amount of time thinking about how their relationship is perceived by others, according to the results of a study that surveyed young adults in cross-sex friendships (Schoonover and McEwan 399). If the peers within their social network of friends want or believe that the cross-sex friendship is romantic, issues could potentially arise in other relationships (Schoonover and McEwan 389). For example, if either member of the friendship has a romantic partner, that person could become jealous or suspicious, which could create tension and destroy the cross-sex friendship (Schoonover and McEwan 389). Therefore, the surrounding social network's opinions of the cross-sex friendship can change the degree that the friends have to worry about the audience challenge (Schoonover and McEwan 391). In other words, as the network's support of the cross-sex friendship as a strictly platonic relationship increases, the audience challenge decreases (Schoonover and McEwan 401). However, while the audience challenge can be a problematic issue for certain types of cross-sex friendships, it has found to not be commonly experienced within cross-sex friendships at large (Schoonover and McEwan 394). One of the main attributes to this finding was that members of the cross-sex friendships were able to effectively communicate with each other as well as their social network about the nature of their relationship and how they were being perceived (Monsour et al. 75). Children’s and adolescent’s cross-sex friendships Cross-sex friendships in childhood and adolescence often have an immense impact on adult cross-sex friendships. Successfully forming cross-sex friendships in childhood is often an indication that these individuals will be able to form positive cross-sex friendships later in life. Thus, early cross-sex friendships act as a blueprint for further social interactions. Children's social skills and behavior can be altered based on whether or not they have predominantly same-sex friends or cross-sex friends. One study by Kovacs, Parker, and Hoffman (1996), they found that children who primarily had friends of the opposite sex were perceived to be more aggressive, yet less shy by others. Furthermore, teachers said that the children with primarily friends of the opposite sex had lower academic performance and social skills, but faced less stereotyping in regards to gender roles and were better adjusted to their social atmosphere than children with few friends in general. Results from Kovacs, Parker, and Hoffman's (1996) study show that children who have a best friend that is the opposite