Mother-Daughter Relationships

This is my blog post on the choice of my topic. I have chosen to focus on mother-daughter relationships; this relates to my major (human ecology) and has been a focus in one of the human ecology courses that I have taken this semester. This topic is also widely looked at throughout our media culture; for example: Oprah has looked into this topic a few times on her show, and many people are interested in knowing more about it. Loana Valdez was also in this course with me and has posted an interesting article about the use of viagra on later life relationships in her blog - which was also one of the topics that was covered in our human ecology 212 course.

Lefkowitz, Miller, and Fingerman (2009) have explained: mother-daughter relationships are the most emotionally intense relationships within our family; they generally involve the highest level of closeness and conflict (p. 288). This closeness and conflict is animated by varying levels of feelings of solidarity or ambivalence between the mother-daughter dyad. It can be explained that the level of ambivalence within mother-daughter relationships reaches its peak during the years of the daughter’s adolescence, as well as within the later life years of the mother.

From the research that I have found on mother-daughter relationships, the mother-daughter bond has consistently been seen as being a life-long, intimate, and developmentally important relationship (Bojczyk, Lehan, McWey, Melson, & Kaufman, 2011, p. 60). There has also been evidence that there is a lifelong tendency for parents to be more invested in their children’s lives than children are in their parents’ lives (Connidis, 2010, p. 147). This has been demonstrated for many generations through the life course; this is especially true when the daughter reaches adolescence. Conflicts in the parent-child relationship are highest during the stage of early adolescence and tend to decline thereafter; this is because adolescents are striving for autonomy and a realignment of the parent-child relationship towards a more egalitarian relationship (Branje, 2008, p.1628). This level of tension between the mother and daughter can also be explained by the daughter feeling conflicted about her need for her mother and her need for autonomy, and differentiation from her mother; whereas the mother may be feeling that she wants to enjoy a close bond with her daughter as she is grows into adulthood (Herschberg, 2006, p. 60). All of these factors together create the peak of feelings of ambivalence within the mother-daughter relationship during the period of adolescence.

A picture of my mother and I at my grade 12 graduation.

(This is my own photo: taken on May 26, 2010)

References:

Bojczck, K. E., Lehan, T. J., McWey, L. M., Melson, G. F., & Kaufman, D. R. (2011). Mothers’ and Their Adult Daughters’ Perceptions of Their Relationship. Journal of Family Issues, 32(4), 452-481.

Branje, S. T. (2008). Conflict management in mother-daughter interactions in early adolescence. Behaviour, 145(11), 1627-1651.

Connidis, I. A. (2010). Exploring intergenerational relations. In Family ties and aging (pp. 137-152). Thousand Oaks, California: Pine Forge Press.

Hershberg, S. G. (2006). Pathways of Growth in the Mother-Daughter Relationship. Psychoanalytic Inquiry,26(1), 56-69.

Lefkowitz, E. S., & Fingerman, K. L. (2003). Positive and Negative Emotional Feelings and Behaviours in Mother-Daughter Ties in Late Life. Journal of Family Psychology, 17(4), 607-617.