Exploring patterns of reciprocal influence between mothers and daughters when daughters return to school in midlife

Mari Gallas Plikuhn, Purdue University

Abstract

The role of socialization in shaping attitudes and behaviors has been of interest to social psychologists and family sociologists for more than a century. This line of scholarship has shown consistently that mothers are central agents of socialization for their daughters in childhood and adolescence; however, much less is known about whether mothers continue to influence their daughters once daughters reach adulthood. Even less is known about whether daughters, once they achieve adulthood, serve as influences for their mothers. In this dissertation I explore both of these questions, using panel data from personal interviews with 37 married daughters who entered a university for the first time while raising their children in the early 1980s. Specifically, I examined: (a) Whether mothers’ support for their daughters’ return to school translated into daughters’ success in college; and (b) whether daughters’ educational experiences reshaped their mothers’ attitudes about the daughters’ return to school. The findings suggested that, as anticipated, mothers’ attitudes played a role in their daughters’ completion of their undergraduate degrees. However, the findings also revealed that daughters’ ability to influence their mothers was limited; in fact, the daughters’ educational success appeared to have no influence on the mothers’ attitudes toward the return to school. Taken together, these findings call for greater attention to be paid to the role of mothers in studying women’s successful transition to demanding new social statuses.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Suitor, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Womens studies|Individual & family studies

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