Reproductive adaptation in mother and daughter. A study of personality development and adaptation to motherhood.

Abstract

A sample of 85 nulliparous pregnant women and their mothers were studied to 1) confirm and replenish previous observations regarding the incidence of paranatal emotional disturbances and their psychological background; and 2) investigate the significance of the mother-daughter relation for the daughters reproductive adaptation. The daughters were interviewed during their pregnancy and 4 months postpartum. They also took psychological tests. The mothers of the pregnant women were personally interviewed. Mental disturbance during pregnancy seemed gene rally to reflect unsatisfactory environmental conditions at the time of conception. The women who were mentally disturbed postpartum were characterized by poor contact with their mothers especially in early childhood. No relations were found between the incidence of paranatal mental disturbance in mother and daughter. However daughters of mothers in poor recent mental health more often became mentally disturbed postpartum. Mothers who scored high on the Reproductive Conflicts in Mother Scale showed more ambivalence toward motherhood and less positive emotional relationships with their daughters. Their daughters in turn more often became mentally disturbed postpartum indicating a transmission of reproductive maladaption from one generation to the next. Similar reproductive adaptation in the 2 generations was observed to be more common when the mother was high in social power over her daughter. This was true both forg od reproductive adaptation and poor adaptation. When a poor adaptation was transmitted the emotional mother-daughter relationship was less satisfactory.