[Adult mother-daughter relationship and mother's psychological well-being].

This study examined the relationship between the quality of a middle-aged mother's current relationship with her adult daughter and such indices of her well-being as depressive symptoms and self-definition. A cross-sectional sample of 231 middle-aged women with an adult daughter completed questionnaires. The results showed that middle-aged mothers with a married daughter felt closer to their daughter than did mothers with an unmarried daughter. The association between the quality of mother-daughter relationship and mother's psychological well-being changed, depending on whether the daughter was married or employed, and whether the mother was employed. Among the mothers who were not employed, with a married daughter, a positive mother-daughter relationship was associated with reports of high self-definition and lack of depressive symptoms while the mother's dependence on her daughter had a negative association with her psychological well-being.