The study differed from other research on mother-daughter conflict that has looked at adolescence. This study examined girls in middle to late childhood, at an average age of 8, Graber said. The teenage years are naturally turbulent times for families, but understanding what happens immediately preceding them sets the stage for a smoother or rockier transition, she said.
Teen conflict is a risk for other behavior-related problems, Graber said.
“It does seem that when there are higher levels of conflict, those daughters are more likely to have adjustment problems in terms of feeling more depression, sadness, anxiety and those problems,” she said.
The study, which Graber did with Sara Villanueva Dixon, a St. Edward's University psychology professor, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, a Columbia University child development professor, involved 45 African-American, 23 Latina and 65 white girls and their mothers. The girls were recruited through fliers while in the third grade. The girls and their families were from racially integrated, working and middle-class communities in a large metropolitan area.
For more information, see: http://news.ufl.edu/2008/04/29/maternal-respect/
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