Date of Submission

Spring 2024

Academic Program

Psychology

Project Advisor 1

Sarah Dunphy-Lelii

Abstract/Artist's Statement

This senior project investigates the enduring impact of prenatal narratives on individuals' lives, particularly focusing on the transmission of maternal experiences from mother to daughter. The study explores how these narratives persist throughout a child's life and how the story of the mother's pregnancy experience influences the daughter's self-esteem and perceived closeness to her mother.Daughters and mothers were asked to share either lived or heard experiences of pregnancy through a free write. Daughters then completed self-report instruments assessing their self-esteem and feelings of closeness to their mother.

The research begins with a review of recent theories and research on life stories, emphasizing their role in self-understanding, self-worth, and autobiographical narratives. The primary objective is to investigate the relationships between individual development and external influences, particularly the input from others in shaping one's self-development. Existing literature underscores the pivotal role of the mother-daughter relationship in shaping a daughter's self-worth, especially within the realm of pregnancy narratives. The study aims to determine how the positivity or negativity of mothers' narratives correlate with daughters' self-esteem and perceived closeness to their mother.

The results did not show a correlation between the positivity or negativity of maternal narratives and daughters' self-esteem and perceived closeness to their mother. Additionally, consistency between the narratives did not correlate with higher self-esteem and perceived closeness scores. That being said, given most of the stories were coded as being consistent, and daughters did have particularly high scores in Self Esteem and MAD, a correlation may in fact exist that we did not detect, due to small sample size. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of the developmental implications of prenatal narratives, shedding light on the dynamics between maternal storytelling, daughters' self-esteem, and their perceived level of closeness in their relationship.

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