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.