Abstract
A mother-daughter relationship is often portrayed as one of the most constitutive ties that shape women’s identities throughout their lives. Yet, a few studies examine a mother-daughter relationship in adulthood. Most of them focus on the mother-daughter relationship among one origin group and only the daughter’s voice is represented. Hence, the existing knowledge about the mother-daughter relationship in adulthood, in the context of culture, disadvantaged groups, and encounters between different cultures remain limited. Based on context-informed perceptions and feminist conceptualizations the current study focuses on cross-cultural comparison of adult mother-daughter relationships among three groups: Israel, Ethiopia, the Former Soviet Union. Self-reported questionnaires were distributed to 190 women, age 42-58 years, participated in a quantitative study. The study examined the differences in the mothers through a number of factors (e.g. social distance, emotional closeness, expectations of similarity and difference, and socio-demographic background). Pearson’s correlations, t-tests, ANOVAs, and hierarchical regression were conducted. Analysis of the findings yields three relationship patterns that characterize each group of origin. Ethiopian mothers reported more sharing their daughter, less expected her to resemble them, and felt more stress in her relationship with her than the Israeli women and women from the Former Soviet Union. The study highlights the impact of intercultural transition and social exclusion on mother-daughter relationships in adulthood in the context of culture and gender. The paper describes the findings and their implications regarding inequality and social inclusion in the context of the vulnerability of disadvantaged groups in society.
Presenters
Ronit Reuven Even ZahavSenior Lecturer, Social Work, Ruppin Academic Center, HaMerkaz, Israel
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Culture informed perspectives; Gender; Mother-daughter relationships; Social distance; Inequality
