Adolescent girls and their mothers: realigning the relationship

Adolescence is a period during which family relationships are realigned. In particular, adolescent girls need to adjust to pubertal development, achieve adaptive individuation from their families, and at the same time attain their parents' acceptance of their emerging independence. Additional challenges include choices about sexual activity and illegal drug use. These changes may exert special pressure on the relationship between adolescent girls and their mothers. In a similar fashion, mothers confront emotional pressures as they attempt to serve as confidantes and guides for their daughters' pubertal changes, fulfill their own needs, and cope with emotions that may be awakened by the adolescent's development. The bond between adolescent girls and their mothers is, therefore, challenged during this period. This paper focuses on a case in which the resolution of these issues caused the adolescent to become pregnant impulsively and, after an abortion, to harbor a wish to become pregnant again. The developmental technique of previewing may help reestablish harmony between a mother and her teenage daughter in these circumstances.