Adult Mother-Daughter Relationships: A Review of the Theoretical and Research Literature

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.