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Communication Among Grandmothers, Mothers, and Adult Daughters

A Qualitative Study of Maternal Relationships

Communication Among Grandmothers, Mothers, and Adult Daughters
  • Price: $42.95 $38.66
  • Paperback: 272 pages
  • Also available in Hardback and e-Book
  • Published: April 2012
  • ISBN: 978-0-415-53620-2
  • Publisher: Routledge

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Series: LEA's Series on Personal Relationships.

This volume examines communication processes within the grandmother-mother-daughter relationship, emphasizing an intergenerational perspective. Using observations of and extensive interviews with six sets of middle-income, Caucasian female family members, this book offers a heuristic account of intergenerational mother-daughter relational communication.

Author Michelle Miller-Day integrates and juxtaposes alternative experiences of social interaction, situating readers in the world of grandmothers, mothers, adult daughters, and granddaughters as they experience, describe, and analyze their family communication. Miller-Day incorporates aged mothers and younger mid-life mothers and their adult daughters into the research to illustrate how this type of maternal relationship is experienced at different points in a woman's life. With the inclusion of three generations of women, Miller-Day offers multigenerational perspectives on family, and examines them for patterns of maternal interaction, providing symbolic links across generational boundaries.

Communication Among Grandmothers, Mothers, and Adult Daughters enables readers to understand more completely the richly textured nature of maternal relationships. It will be an invaluable resource for scholars and researchers in the areas of communication and relationships, including family communication, intergenerational communication, women's studies, family studies, interpersonal communication, and relationships, as well as social workers, psychologists, and counselors, who strive to understand family communication processes and their dynamics across generational lines.

Table of Contents

Contents: Series Foreword. Preface. Part I: Setting the Scene. Velvet Chains: Understanding Maternal Relationships. The Qualitative Research Journey: "How Did I Get Here and Where Am I Going?" Grandmothers, Mothers, and Adult Daughters in Elkwood. Part II: The Action. Contradictions. Patterns of Interaction: Best Intentions, Bitter Regret, Resentment, and Love. Part III: The Denouement. Theoretical Development. Grandmothers, Mothers, and Adult Daughters: A Force to Be Reckoned With. Epilogue.

Reviews

* Receved the 2006 Top Book Award from the Applied Communication Division of the National Communication Association

"Congratulations to Michelle Miller-Day for writing a readable academic study…This book will appeal to those studying relationships between adult kin. This is also a useful book for practitioners and family therapists who want to help family members communicate through respectful negotiations."

—Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering

"This comprehensive study would be of interest to anyone interested in communication within families, or who works with families on a intergenerational level."

—Australian Institute of Family Studies

"Although we are treated to an intelligent look at the intergenerational communication among women and its implications, this is also an example of a rigorous and scholarly qualitative study at its best. If you are interested in expanding your understanding of the qualitative research process, read this book."

—The Family Journal

"Miller-Day presents a theoretically rich analysis of maternal relationships in an engaging and easily digested format. This book is appropriate for a wide audience. The entire book would be a worthwhile assignment for undergraduate and graduate students….excellent supplementary readings for graduate courses in women's studies, the psychology of women, family systems, adult development, and qualitative research methodology….the book may be useful to clinicians….it provides relevant insight into the dynamics at work in women's formative relationships."

—Psychology of Women Quarterly

"Michelle A. Miller-Day makes a significant contribution to the understanding of women's intergenerational relationships with her book, Communication Among Grandmothers, Mothers, and Adult Daughters. Miller-Day has greatly added to our understanding of mother-daughter relationships and what makes for healthy, or connected, relationships by examining this communication. Miller-Day's book offers a highly competent and substantial contribution of grandmother, mother, and adult daughter relationships and the role of communication in those relationships. It is based on sound scholarship and presented in an unwaveringly clear and logical manner."

—Journal of Marriage and Family