title: Adult mother-daughter relationships: a review of the theoretical and research literature.
abstract: This review of the psychoanalytic, developmental, and other relevant theoretical and research literature on mother daughter relationships was undertaken as part of an ongoing research study, Generation to Generation. Mother-Daughter Physicians (Shrier and Shrier 2000, 2002b). The review focuses particularly on mothers and their adult daughters during the longest period of a woman's life (between the end of adolescence and old age). The research literature on normative mother-daughter relationships is quite limited and while there is an extensive and evolving theoretical literature, it is not grounded in a nonclinical empirical database. Highlights are presented of past and current theories and research studies about female development and mother-daughter relationships, embedded in their historical sociocultural context. This comprehensive literature review documents the need for an empirical database drawn from a nonclinical population and the importance of methodologically sound research to support or challenge existing and evolving developmental and psychoanalytic theories on adult mother-daughter relationships.
authors.affiliation: George Washington University Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA. diane.shrier.med.64@aya.yale.edu
authors.forename: Diane K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Shrier
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tompsett
authors.forename: Lydia A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Shrier
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008875:Middle Aged; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory