Puberty and Identity: Study on Conversations Between Black Mothers and Daughters

Herz — Tech & Science Desk · 13 July 2026 at 18:45 · 30s summary · 2 min read

What We Know

A team at the University of Michigan published a qualitative study in the Journal of Research on Adolescence — a quarterly academic journal founded in 1991, published by Wiley-Blackwell for the Society for Research on Adolescence and specializing in research on adolescent development (DOI: 10.1111/jora.70226). The principal researcher is Rona Carter, associate professor of psychology.

The study examined Black mother-daughter dyads — pairs, meaning two-person units. It is qualitative in nature and establishes no direct comparison with other racial groups or family structures.

First finding: for Black girls, puberty is not only a biological transition but also an identity transition. Conversations with their mothers become a space to make sense of bodily changes, gender, race, ethnicity, and social expectations.

Second finding: mothers practice scaffolding — helping their daughters name, interpret, and organize their experiences with bodily changes, gender expectations, racialized messages, and social comparison.

Third finding: early in puberty, mothers play a more directive role. As puberty progresses, daughters increasingly assert their own interpretations, indicating a shift toward more active identity negotiation.

Puberty can intensify identity conversations for Black girls, with mothers helping their daughters make sense of gender, race, ethnicity, and bodily changes.

— Rona Carter, Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Michigan

Disagreements as Moments of Identity Building

Fourth finding: disagreements between mothers and daughters are not mere communication problems. The study analyzes them as moments when both parties negotiate, revise, and repair identity meanings together, contributing to healthy identity development.

What Remains Uncertain

The study is limited to Black mother-daughter dyads; its conclusions cannot be generalized to other racial groups, family structures, or cultural contexts. The qualitative nature of the research also restricts its statistical reach. Additionally, the term "scaffolding" is used here in the sense of developmental psychology; no verified definition covering this specific usage was available.

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