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Ashley Kraemer
University of Wisconsin - Whitewater
Subject Listing - Communications
Advisor: Dr. Barbara Penington
Friday, Oral Session 4, Presentation 2, Karpen Hall 011
THE TRICKY TRANSITION: COMMUNICATION IN THE MOTHER AND ADOLESCENT-DAUGHTER RELATIONSHIP
The purpose of this project was to investigate characteristics of communication in the mother-adolescent daughter relationship. Adolescence is a time of physical, social, and emotional changes which can positively or negatively impact the quality of the relationship the adolescent has with her mother. Since a key to understanding a relationship is observing the communication within that relationship, this study's goal was to obtain detailed descriptions of how mothers and their adolescent daughters talked about their communication. A focus group methodology was used. The four focus groups consisted of 1) seventh grade daughters 2) the seventh graders' mothers, 3) high school junior girls, and 4) high school junior girls' mothers. Each group was interviewed individually, but asked similar questions. A thematic analysis was conducted to identify the most important themes relating to mother adolescent-daughter communication. Results demonstrated that older adolescents had slightly different relationships with their mothers than did younger adolescents and were more open in communication with mothers. The tension between the need for freedom and the need to maintain connection was observed between the majority of mothers and their daughters regardless of age group, supporting dialectical tensions theory (Baxter, 1988, 1990). The theme of "disagreements" between mothers and daughters was common and focused on chores, listening behavior, and the daughters' freedom to engage in desired activities. Future research should focus on mothers and daughters of different regions of the country, cultures, or social classes as this study was conducted in the Midwest and used adolescents from middle class European-American families.
Advisor: Dr. Barbara Penington, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, University of Wisconsin - Whitewater, Whitewater, WI