Mother-Daughhter Relationships

Mother-daughter relationships and adult daughter friendships by Welleford, Elizabeth Ayn, Ph.D., Virginia Commonwealth University, 1998, 213 pages; AAT 9839194

Purpose:
The purposes of this study was to explore the associations between adult daughters' relationships with their mothers and close friends and to describe factors that contribute to the development of adult relationships and linkages between mother- daughter and daughter-friend relationships.

Findings:
120 adult mother and daughter couples were interviewed. Six categories were explored in the interviews: parenting, transition to adult mother-daughter relationship, current mother-daughter typology, daughters' relational tools, daughters' relational work, and current daughter-friend relationship qualities. Two things were discovered in this study: First, the mother's parenting goals and behavior influences the dyad's transition into an adult mother-daughter relationship. Second, mother's parenting goals and behavior influences the daughter's current friendship via daughter's relational tools and relationship work.

How this relates to my work:
Although some of the findings in this study were rather obvious, I still found them interesting. The study found that those who were most comfortable in their mother-daughter relationship were more affectionate and were secure in their identity. It was also found that they had better personal, relationship skills than those who had slightly less or even alienated relationships with their mother's.
My mother and I have a very strong and affectionate relationship. We are very close. I also have a very close relationship with my Grandmother, more so than I usually see in other Granddaughter- Grandmother relationships. On the other hand, my Mom and Grandmother have a tense relationship. My Mother has said in the past they she purposely took note of the things her mother did that she would never do. I know how important it is to have a healthy relationship with one's Mother, in terms of growth and development as well as for social reasons. If a child is raised with love and affection, and is close and comfortable with one's mother, they will be more likely to be healthy and stable in their lives.
While working on my senior project I have become very interested in studying the history of my Grandmother, Mother, and myself. Seeing how my Grandmother was raised and how she related to the world and seeing how my Mother was raised is very interesting. I am able to see them at the same ages in these videos. I am able to see the similarities in their actions, expressions, and movements. I can see how they were raised. How they were treated by their parents, what their living situations were like. Of course I know how I was raised and what my living situation was like. It is very interesting too see the line from My Grandmother to my Mother to me. This project has started to become much more. It is more about the relationships between three women.