When Mothers Turn to Their Adolescent Daughters: Predicting Daughters' Vulnerability to Negative Adjustment Outcomes^*

Abstract

Mother-to-daughter disclosure regarding two sensitive topic areas-financial concerns and complaints/anger toward the ex-husband (the adolescent girl's father)-was examined in a sample of 62 mother/adolescent-daughter dyads following the mother's divorce. Most mothers in the current sample have disclosed to their daughters on these two topics, but with varying levels of detail and diverse motivations. Daughter perceptions of maternal disclosure were associated with daughter psychological distress, regardless of daughter age.

Post-Divorce Maternal Disclosure and the Father–Adolescent Relationship: Adolescent Emotional Autonomy and Inter-Reactivity as Moderators

“…However, in 16 cases the adolescent was ineligible for participation either because he or she was 18 or older or because it was clear that one person had completed both the mother and the adolescent questionnaire, making the data unusable. The final response rate was 35%, which compares favorably to rates in previous research efforts using court records (see Cantrell and Sprenkle 1989;Koerner et al 2000).…”

“…Previous research has also found that negative maternal disclosure about the former husband/adolescent's father is troublesome to adolescents (Hetherington 1999) and is associated with adolescents' psychological distress-symptoms of depression and anxiety (Koerner et al 2000;Koerner et al 2004;Koerner et al 2002). Surprisingly, however, researchers have not yet examined the possible negative consequences of such disclosure on adolescents' perceptions of the quality of the father-adolescent relationship.…”

“…Following parental divorce many adolescents get exposed to sensitive maternal disclosures (e.g., Arditti 1999), post-divorce financial concerns, and anger/complaints about the adolescent's father (Dolgin 1996;Koerner et al 2000). Indeed, Hetherington's (1999) research on parentification (i.e., children taking on parent-like adult roles) has found that mothers are more likely than are fathers to engage in this sort of disclosure.…”

“…Notably, research on a sample of divorced mothers and their adolescent daughters found that mothers' negative disclosure about their former husbands was often motivated by the desire to ''shape or alter the daughter's view of her father, of the divorce in general, and of divorce-related blame'' (Koerner et al 2000, p. 306). Specifically, Koerner et al (2000) found that mothers who disclosed negative information/feelings about the father wanted their daughters to relinquish their idealized view of their father and/or realize that their mother is not completely to blame for the divorce. In short, mothers wanted to influence their daughters' opinion about their father.…”

“…Since we know that one reason that mothers disclose negative information about the father is to influence their adolescent's opinion (Koerner et al 2000), high emotional autonomy from mother may be particularly important for adolescents to form their own opinions about their father in the wake of divorce. In the present study, we tested level of emotional autonomy as a potential moderator of the association between mother's negative disclosure about the father and adolescent perceptions of the quality of the father-adolescent relationship.…”