2025 Theses Doctoral

Because of her, I am, I want, and I will be: An Exploratory Investigation of Black Mother-daughter Relationships across the Lifecourse

Baker, Brianna Alexis

The Black family remains a poorly studied and understudied entity within scientific research. Notably, the roles of Black mothers and processes of Black mother-daughter relationships have not been given adequate scholarly attention. This study aimed to investigate the role and function of Black Mother-Daughter relationships in gendered racial socialization. Namely, this study focused on gendered race-based message transmission surrounding notions of Black womanhood, mental well-being, and hope and healing.

This research study included three research questions: 1) How do Black mothers and daughters describe and understand their mother-daughter relationship?, 2) How does the Black Mother-Daughter relationship change over time?, and 3) How do Black daughters perceive their mother's influence on the development of their general mental health and self-esteem?

This study used a qualitative inquiry that employed the Rigorous and Accelerated Data Reduction Analytic (RAdaR) technique to uncover the significant aspects of Black women’s gendered socialization in the family unit as well as the process by which messages of hope and healing are communicated. 18 Black mothers (N = 18) were interviewed regarding their experiences as Black mothers and daughters, including gendered racial socialization and mental health promotion within the family unit with a focus on transgenerational communication and gendered race-based messaging.

True to qualitative inquiry, this study did not anticipate any specific findings. However, the goal of the study was to center Black women’s familial experiences as related to their identity in hopes of informing future research, clinical practice, and policy. An analysis of 18 semi-structured interviews with Black mothers of Black daughters illustrated the participants’ experiences as Black women and girls within the family system particularly related to experiences of motherhood and daughterhood.

The data analysis revealed eight prominent themes related to Black women and girls’ gendered racial experiences related to the mother-daughter matrix: Yellow-Mothering, Gendered Racial Socialization, Grandmothering, Black matrescence, Family Environment, Gendered Racial Identity, Other Mothers and Auntie-ism, and Custody of the Inner Black Girl. Implications of the findings, study limitations, and future research recommendations are discussed.