The mother-daughter relationship in menopause and the aging process

Abstract

The goal of this research was to expand understanding of menopausal experiences and women's aging process through a biopsychosocial approach and lifespan perspective. More specifically, the purpose of this study was to explicate contributions of (a) relationship properties, (b) socialization influences, (c) attitudes toward menopause and women's aging process, and (d) symptom experiences toward general health perceptions during menopause and the aging process in mother-daughter dyads. This study was conducted in collaboration with the Tremin Trust, a large scale, longitudinal research program. The sample was recruited from among mother-daughter pairs in the Tremin Trust Research Program who met study criteria and included 50 mothers and 49 daughters (i.e., 99 individuals and 43 dyads). This descriptive study used a correlational survey design which included two time referents: T1 represented a timepoint in the past when the mother was the daughter's present age (i.e., a time at which the mother was perimenopausal and the daughter was in the menstrual and reproductive years), and T2 represented a present timepoint with the daughter in the perimenopausal years and the mother at some stage of the aging process. In addition to existing background and demographic data from the Tremin Trust database, a mailed questionnaire was used to collect data on major study variables. Descriptive, "longitudinal", cross-sectional, sequential, and developmental-multivariate strategies were used to answer six research questions. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, individual- and dyadic-level correlational methods, and multiple regression techniques. For both mothers and daughters, past general health perceptions were found to be associated with (a) present perceptions of the mother-daughter relationship, and (b) present general health perceptions. Moreover, the single greatest contribution to both mother's and daughter's present general health perceptions was made by the present general health perceptions of the other member of the pair (i.e., daughter or mother). Whereas symptom experiences was a significant contributor to mother's general health perceptions, perceptions of the mother-daughter relationship and socialization influences were major contributors to daughter's general health perceptions. Attitudes toward menopause and the aging process made only minimal contributions to the general health perceptions of perimenopausal daughters and aging mothers.