Age Brings Acceptance
by Sheri Wallace

A study by Karen Fingerman, Ph.D., associate professor of human development at Penn State University, offers new insight into the relationships between mothers and daughters and how these relationships evolve. In the April issue of "Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences," Fingerman published the study, in which she surveyed 44 young mother/daughter pairs in which the daughters were in their twenties and the mothers were in their forties.

She compared these young pairs to 48 older ones in which the daughter was in her forties and the mother was in her late seventies. To do the comparison, Fingerman gave each participant a detailed questionnaire and compiled the results. She shows quite conclusively that there are indeed differences in the relationships between the pairs as they aged.

The most obvious change is the amount of time spent with each other. The younger pairs in the study saw each other only once every other month and spoke on the phone two to three times a week. The older pairs saw each other much more frequently -- once a week or so -- and spoke on the phone only once every two weeks.