Abstract
The mother-daughter relationship can be a particularly close relationship, and this paper focuses on the development of female emerging adults who are gaining autonomy. Pairs of female university students (n=173) and their mothers (n=149) participated in a questionnaire survey about the effect of the distance between mothers and their emerging adult daughters on the daughter's psychological adjustment and autonomy. The girls were first categorized into four types based on a profile of their distance from mothers and daughters' autonomy (termed as connected, dependent, detached, and autonomous types). Regarding these types, there were not only quantitative features such as near vs. far, but also qualitative features related to daughters' agency in the distance, and related to daughters' autonomy and adjustment. Next, disparities in perceptions of the distance between mothers and daughters were examined. The data suggested individual differences in relation to emotional bonds and their effects on girls' autonomy and adjustment, and developmental aspects of the mother-daughter relationship in relation to changes in daughters' autonomy.
