Mother-daughter attachment in adulthood.

Abstract

The mother-daughter relationship is the most active and enduring of all intergenerational bonds, yet our knowledge of how this attachment relationship affects women's development beyond adolescence is limited. The relationship among the variables attachment style, attachment, self-esteem, empathy, and conflict were studied in a convenience sample of 82 nonclinical adult mother-daughter dyads from a Mid-Western community. Additionally, five mother-daughter dyads were non-randomly selected for additional interviews. Rogers' Principle of Helicy, attachment theory and feminist theories of development provided the conceptual framework. A Mother Model and a Daughter Model was tested as causal models to predict women's self-esteem within the mother-daughter attachment relationship. Both theoretical models were tested using the statistical package Amos 3.10c. Differences between mothers and daughters were noted: daughter's conflict with her mother and daughter's attachment to her mother directly predicted daughter's self-esteem: the greater the daughter's conflict with mother and the lower the daughter's attachment to mother, the greater the daughter's self-esteem. In contrast, mother's empathy was the only direct predictor of mother's self-esteem: the greater the mother's empathy the greater the mother's self-esteem. The overall indices of fit for the Mother Model (GFI =.95, AGFI =.75) and the Daughter Model (GFI =.90, AGFI =.79) were adequate; however, respecified models were tested. The respecified model for mothers added a direct pathway from a mother's empathy to a mother's conflict with her daughter. The overall indices of fit were significantly improved (GFI =.99, AGFI =.95). The respecified model for daughters eliminated a daughter's attachment style as an endogenous variable and added a direct pathway from a mother's empathy to a mother's conflict with her daughter. The overall indices of fit were improved (GFI =.95; AGFI =.89). These findings support the contention that attachment is an ongoing process that mutually occurs between mothers and daughters across the life span of their relationship. Additionally, the attachment relationship influences women's development, at least daughter's development, and provides nurses a focus for mental health promotion among women.