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This study examines the extent to which educational outcomes are transmitted from mothers to daughters in rural China. An analysis of the 2010 China Family Panel Survey reveals that: (i) how far daughters go in their education is strongly associated with their mothers’ education; (ii) the association between mothers’ and daughters’ educational outcomes in rural China was found to be stronger than the corresponding relationships between mothers and sons, fathers and daughters, and fathers and sons, especially at higher levels of education; and (iii) while having more brothers and being born later worsens daughters’ educational outcomes, mothers’ higher education effectively mitigates these negative effects. These findings add to a growing body of literature and empirical evidence that challenges conventional social mobility research paradigms that neglect mothers’ roles. More importantly, the distinction between mother–daughter relationship and that between fathers and daughters and mothers and sons highlights the fact that education is likely transmitted intergenerationally via mechanisms that differ depending on the gendered parent–child pairs.

Income inequality in Brazil is high and persistent, explained at least in part by low intergenerational income mobility. Despite the increasing female labor participation, most of the studies consider only father’s income to analyze intergenerational mobility. This chapter aims to analyze the role of mothers in intergenerational income mobility and the differences in mobility patterns between daughters and sons in Brazil. We use information from social mobility supplement of 2014 National Household Sample Survey to estimate intergenerational elasticity of labor income. The results show that the relation between mothers’ and children’s income is almost as high as that of fathers, especially for daughters. Mobility patterns’ analysis reveals no significant differences between daughters and sons. However, gender income inequalities are more pronounced for women from poor families. As returns to education are increasing, the educational advantage of female over male workers seems to offset gender gap for those of richer families. Moreover, the educational mobility between generations was higher for daughters than for sons. Despite that, daughters did not experience greater income mobility than sons. These results suggest that equalizing educational opportunities is important to promote intergenerational income mobility, although not sufficient. Nowadays, women in Brazil are more educated than men, but there exist social barriers to achieve equal payment for similar levels of schooling. Then, there is still room for gendered actions and policies related to improvements in labor market conditions to narrow the gender wage gap between men and women and between workers from richer and poorer families.

We investigate the question of whether investing in a child’s development by having a parent stay at home when the child is young is correlated with the child’s adult outcomes. Specifically, do children with stay-at-home mothers have higher adult earnings than children raised in households with a working mother? The major contribution of our study is that, unlike previous studies, we have access to rich longitudinal data that allows us to measure both the parental earnings when the child is very young and the adult earnings of the child. Our findings are consistent with previous studies that show insignificant differences between children raised by stay-at-home mothers during their early years and children with mothers working in the market. We find no impact of maternal employment during the first five years of a child’s life on earnings, employment, or mobility measures of either sons or daughters. We do find, however, that maternal employment during children’s high school years is correlated with a higher probability of employment as adults for daughters and a higher correlation between parent and daughter earnings ranks.

To examine the lived experiences of the biological adult daughters of women with breast cancer.

Family systems theory and phenomenology were used to guide this exploratory, qualitative study. Qualitative data were collected via one-time, semi-structured interviews with adult daughters of women with breast cancer.

Predominant themes included: close mother–daughter relationships, untimely disclosure of information, attentive fathers, optimistic outlooks, and influences on participants’ intimate relationships. Perceived strong familial and intimate relationships prior to breast cancer diagnosis helped ensure that mother–daughter relationships would remain strong, or even improve. Fathers’ attentiveness to mothers was pivotal in determining positive and negative attributes in daughters’ own intimate relationships.

Based on the findings from this study, family scientists and healthcare professionals may have a better understanding of the patients’ young adult daughters’ concerns throughout breast cancer treatment and follow up.

Daughters may be at a loss when their mothers are diagnosed with breast cancer. Healthcare professionals can be equipped to recognize these signs when meeting with patients and families, offer suggestions for family members’ coping, and encourage daughters to consider their own breast cancer risk and screening.

This study will provide a new insight into the experiences of daughters of women with breast cancer, and help family and health professionals understand how to support the relatives of breast cancer patients.

Purpose – To explore certain aspects of women's experience of their reproductive lives, in different cultural contexts, especially their views on sexuality and sexual practices. It is based on transnational comparative research, and compares the experiences and meanings about motherhood and mother/daughter relationships, especially referring to sexuality and reproductive health. The two contexts we have chosen for this chapter are drawn from our data on Indonesian and Canadian women. While these women come from culturally diverse situations, we find continuities between their experiences as well as contrasts in the contexts in which they live their reproductive lives.

Methodology – Our study was based on collecting participant driven narratives focused on their experience of their reproductive lives. We interviewed women from three generations in the same families to secure a longitudinal perspective and to examine the relationships between generations in the same family. Our overall purpose was to examine the role of local culture in the social reproduction of women's lives in the family.

Findings – The findings we discuss in this chapter focus on the continuities and contrasts we found in women's experience as lived in very different cultural, religious, and political contexts. Indonesian and Canadian women are struggling to live healthy and meaningful lives in a world that is changing ideologically, culturally, politically, and economically. We identify some key problems faced by women, especially as they negotiate the difficult terrain of sexuality, and suggest some points of entry in solving them.

Originality/value – The originality of the article lies in the close examination of in-depth, qualitative data on family relationships, especially in contrasting cultural situations. We also think that our approach, which focuses on generations of women in the same families, provides us with a unique perspective on how relationships and especially women's experience of their reproductive and sexual lives are closely related to the way in which culture is mediated in families.

Responding to calls for a greater understanding of consumer socialization in young people, this paper aims to investigate daughters' perceptions of shopping with their mothers. It seeks to provide insights into the significance of the retail shopping experience for young women.

This exploratory study is based on 30 online and three face‐to‐face interviews with young women aged between 20 and 22. The authors asked the young women who they shopped with and why and to recount some of their best and worst shopping experiences. The interviews were coded and analysed to reveal several recurring themes. This paper reports only on data relating to shopping with their mothers.

The four major themes that emerged from the interviews with the young women were: gaining independence; trust in mother; the bank of mum; quality time with mum.

The sample is limited to young women in a Midwest university in the USA. Attitudes to consumption and shopping and the mother daughter relationship are culturally derived and may differ in other contexts.

Women are critical to the retail industry and make the bulk of buying decisions for the family. Daughters represent the next generation of this major market force. Marketers and retailers must be cognizant of the power of this relationship.

This paper is the first to report on the daughter‐mother shopping experience, with daughters' perceptions of this experience and the outcomes of the consumer socialisation that occur.

This paper aims to explore the mother–adolescent daughter shopping trip to better understand the experiences and process that occur during these shopping trips. Adolescent girls and their mothers are an important shopping companion pair that has received minimal study.

This research investigates the mother–adolescent daughter shopping trip using in-depth interviews with 28 mothers, adolescent daughters and retail employees in the USA.

The interviews reveal that the mother–adolescent daughter shopping trip consists of three important developmental experiences: conflict and struggle, education and influence and bonding between mother and daughter. Similarities and differences between middle- and high-school daughters relative to these issues are explored.

This study is the first to bring together the interplay processes of conflict, education and influence and bonding during mother–adolescent daughter shopping trips. This study extends research regarding family identity interplay, companion shopping, adolescent identity development and consumer socialization. The authors find that the mother–adolescent daughter shopping trip involves daughters’ efforts to separate from their mothers and form their own identities, often producing struggle and conflicts; daughters developing as consumers and individuals; and an opportunity to bond.

The purpose of this study is to examine the intergenerational influence across dyads of mothers and daughters from the USA and the People’s Republic of China (PRC), with a particular interest in discovering the cross-national differences in terms of the level of mother–daughter brand preference agreement, the directional influence from daughter to mother and leading factors for the observed differences.

Using a parallel survey method, responses were obtained regarding participants’ brand preferences, as well as their perceptions of their dyad partners’ preferences, for 20 product categories. A total of 76 dyads in the USA and 114 dyads in the PRC were collected.

Results not only confirmed the existence of intergenerational influence in mother–daughter dyads’ brand preferences after removing the nominal bias that previous studies commonly suffered but also suggested two interesting cross-national differences. Specifically, the authors find that US mother–daughter dyads possess a higher level of brand preference agreement than their PRC counterparts; however, the influence from daughters to mothers in the PRC is greater than in the USA. The authors further find that two potential leading factors contribute to the observed cross-national differences; mother–daughter communication is stronger but less influential in the USA than in the PRC, while children’s peer influence, measured as information influence of peers, is weaker but more influential in the USA than in the PRC.

Understanding intergeneration influences in different cultural contexts may be applicable in developing communication strategies leading to brand preference.

This study contributes to the consumer socialization literature by examining the cross-national differences of intergenerational influence in brand preferences and their leading causes of such differences in the context of the two biggest economies.

The purposes of this research are to examine the extent to which daughters view their mothers as consumption role models, the extent to which daughters serve as consumption role models for their mothers, and the extent to which external role models are shared by mothers and their adolescent daughters.

Two qualitative studies focused on mothers‐adolescent daughters‐vicarious role models interactions as drivers of consumption behaviors in Western cultures. Study 1 included 20 in‐depth interviews with mothers and their adolescent daughters (conducted separately). Study 2 included five of the original dyads interviewed jointly and observed in fashion stores.

Regarding adolescent daughters' use as role models and fashion markers for their mothers, most mothers confirmed that their adolescent daughters' fashion opinion was very important. Second, based on consumer socialization arguments, mothers served as role models for their adolescent daughters. Most dyads shop for fashion items together and in the same stores. Regarding the issue of cognitive versus chronological ages, the studies suggest that there is a gap between mothers' cognitive and chronological ages in support of cognitive age theory and the youthfulness ideal of Western cultures. Notably, such a gap mostly failed to materialize for adolescent daughters. Hence, consumption similarity appears to be driven more by the gap for mothers than the gap for daughters. Finally, external role models such as celebrities did not have a great influence on mothers or their adolescent daughters.

The research used in‐depth interviews with and in‐store observation of mothers and adolescent daughters. Future research might use similar interviews with younger daughters. Another extension of the work reported here that can provide triangulation for the findings is to change from a qualitative to a quantitative methodology.

The purpose of this study is to invoke a consumer socialization approach to compare mothers and tween daughters on variables that may shape their clothing preferences and consumption behaviors. Additionally, this study explored the variables that predict how mothers and daughters respond to Pretty Brainy, an online clothing company that incorporates prosocial messaging into its product design and marketing.

Data were collected from 106 mother-daughter pairs using an online survey. In completing the survey, participants were instructed to view and evaluate the Pretty Brainy brand web site and clothing.

Mothers and daughters assigned similar degrees of importance to several clothing characteristics – including aesthetics/design, comfort, fit, use of socially responsible construction/production methods, and use of high performance technology – providing support for the consumer socialization model. Mothers and daughters were not similar on all clothing constructs explored, however, differing on the importance of some clothing characteristics examined (notably, brand name), as well as past socially responsible clothing purchase behavior, clothing involvement, and proximity of clothing to self. These differences may be explained in part by the mothers’ and daughters’ respective life stages. Among both mothers and daughters, attitude toward brand was the strongest predictor of purchase intention toward Pretty Brainy, which is consistent with established models of the attitude-intention relationship.

This study provides understanding about the influence of mothers upon tween girls’ clothing consumption behaviors, helping to clarify inconsistencies in prior work as well as lending new insights into the role of mothers in socializing their daughters with respect to socially responsible clothing consumption.