Mothers' Attributions for Estrangement From Their Adult Children

Parent-child estrangement is a relational phenomenon associated with significant distress for adult children and especially their estranged parents. Understanding parents' attributions for estrangement is critical-parents' willingness to make necessary changes to facilitate reconciliation may depend on how they make sense of their adult children's reasons for estrangement. This study used quantitative data from an online survey conducted in 2019 and completed by 1,035 mothers currently estranged from one or more of their adult children. We explored mothers' endorsement of attributions for estrangement, the demographic correlates of their endorsement of attributions, and the relations of their endorsement of attributions to current levels of contact with estranged children. Results indicated that about half of mothers reported no contact at all since the estrangement began, and over half reported that it had been at least 1 year since they had any contact with their adult children. These mothers tended to endorse external attributions for estrangement, including family members' turning the child against them (e.g., child's other biological parent or adult child's romantic partner) or children's struggles with mental illness and/or addiction. Mothers were less likely to endorse internal attributions for estrangement compared with external attributions or to validate their children's complaints about abuse or neglect. Results are discussed in the context of changes in parent-child relationships across generations; implications for future research and clinical work with estranged parents are also discussed.

Automated summary

This study investigated the mothers' endorsement of attributions for parent-child estrangement. The results showed that a majority of mothers reported no contact since the estrangement began, and they tended to attribute the estrangement to external factors. Mothers were less likely to attribute the estrangement to internal factors or validate their children's complaints about abuse or neglect.