When Mothers Turn to Their Adolescent Daughters: Predicting Daughters' Vulnerability to Negative Adjustment Outcomes*

When Mothers Turn to Their Adolescent Daughters: Predicting Daughters' Vulnerability to Negative Adjustment Outcomes* Mother-to-daughter disclosure regarding two sensitive topic areas-financial concerns and complaints/anger toward the ex-husband (the adolescent girl's father-was examined in a sample of 62 mother/adolescent-daughter dyads following the mother's divorce. Most mothers in the current sample have disclosed to their daughters on these two topics, but with varying levels of detail and diverse motivations. Daughter perceptions of maternal disclosure were associated with daughter psychological distress, regardless of daughter age. Key Words: adjustment, adolescence, boundaries, disclosure, divorce, mother-daughter relationships. One of the major challenges that families struggle with following divorce is the re-negotiation of family boundaries (Emery & Dillon, 1994). Family boundaries, a central concept from family systems theory, are the implicit and explicit rules that regulate interaction among family members (Minuchin, 1974). Boundaries can be categorized into two kinds: boundaries of intimacy (rules of closeness) and boundaries of power (rules of authority/influence). According to Emery, a leading scholar in the field of divorce and children's well-being, boundaries between family members are difficult to renegotiate following marital separation because of uncertain normative expectations, intense and painful emotions, and loyalty dilemmas (Emery & Dillon, 1994). Violation of typical intergenerational intimacy boundaries is thought to occur when parents rely on their children as confidantes, by sharing or disclosing to their children personal worries, concerns, and complaints. That is, violation of intimacy boundaries is thought to occur when the parent-child relationship reflects a level of openness typically reserved for close adult-adult relationships (e.g., spousal relationships, adult friendships). Although a good deal of clinical and case study work has focused on the phenomenon of boundary violation between divorced mothers and their adolescent children, few systematic non-clinical research efforts have done so. This gap in the literature is rather surprising, not only because case studies have shown that following divorce mothers may turn to their adolescents for intimacy and emotional sustenance (e.g., Bassoff, 1988; Glenwick & Mowrey, 1986; Weiss, 1975, 1979b), but also because several family theories-most strikingly, structural family systems theory-have maintained that the violation of intimacy boundaries places teenagers in a vulnerable position with respect to emotional well-being and behavioral adjustment (Bowen, 1978; Lopez, Campbell, & Watkins, 1988; Minuchin, 1974; Teyber, 1983; Weltner, 1982). Specifically, listening to parental disclosures about sensitive topics (e.g., financial concerns) may lead adolescents to worry not only about their family's situation, but also about their parent's well-being. Adolescents may feel burdened or overwhelmed. As a result, they may experience symptoms of psychological distress (e.g., depression, anxiety) or engage in problem behavior (e.g., drug use, anti-social behavior). Mother-to-Adolescent Disclosure After Divorce The phenomenon of divorced mothers enlisting their adolescent daughters as confidantes has been studied almost exclusively via clinical and case studies (e.g., Bassoff, 1988; Glenwick & Mowrey, 1986; Weiss, 1975, 1979b). Those data provide evidence that many divorced mothers, at least in these selective samples, do indeed breach typical generational boundaries by disclosing their personal worries and difficulties to their daughters. Very little is known, however, about the extent to which divorced mothers in the more general population engage in such disclosure with their adolescent daughters. In an important exception, Buchanan, Maccoby, and Dornbusch's (1996) study of divorced families in northern California revealed a fair amount of confiding on the part of parents to their adolescents. …