Mother-adult daughter attachment
Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to investigate mother-adult daughter attachment through the daughters' transitions to marriage and parenthood, guided by attachment theory and family development theory. One hundred pairs of adult daughters and their mothers in Korea responded to the mother-adult daughter attachment questionnaire. The results revealed that mother-adult daughter attachment was reciprocal. The pattern of mothers' perception of attachment was different from the pattern of daughters' perception. Daughters tended to be more concerned with the issue of reciprocity of attachment and interaction than were their mothers. When mother-adult daughter attachment was not reciprocal, daughter's attachment was likely to be lower than their mother's. The differences between daughters' and mothers' perception of attachment were the largest when daughters were single. Daughter's marriage was found to be a good predictor of differences in mother-adult daughter attachment, suggesting developmental change. But parenthood did not predict differences in attachment between adult daughters and their mothers. Daughters' marriages predicted daughters' higher attachment in contrast to mothers' lower attachment. These results are discussed in relation to attachment theory and family development theory.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Altergott, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Families & family life|Personal relationships|Sociology
Off-Campus Purdue Users:
To access this dissertation, please log in to our
proxy server.