Menopause and Personal Health 19
become more aligned with their mother once the younger adult has been married or becomes a
parent, it is equally likely that cultural norms are affecting the development of menopausal
attitudes. Chrisler, Pado, and Brady (1991) argue that the cultural stereotypes for menopause
abound. Young adults are bombarded with divergent images in the mass media about aging and
menopause, and without consciously thinking about their own relationship to this life passage,
may be more willing to accept these cultural norms without question. Thus, as attitudes are
consistently shaped and reshaped through the self-concepts interaction with the environment
(Vinney, 1992), the attitudes expressed by the young adults in this cross-sectional study, may or
may not be consistent with future attitudes and perceptions held about the menopausal
experience. Additional research is welcomed to track mother-adult child relationship topic
involvement and longitudinal attitude shifts.
Finally, we acknowledge several limitations to the research. This study recognizes that
discussions about menopause are occurring, but it does not answer the large questions about the
depth, length, and frequency of these interactions. Causal mechanisms also can’t be drawn
between a specific underlying mechanism in the mother-child relationship and menopausal
communication. Greater specification of prior sexual communication also needs to be explored
as this paper only identified four areas of sexual dialogue (i.e., birth control, sex practice,
sexually transmitted disease and general sexual information). It is possible that a more inclusive
set of sexual health genres may be better predictors of menopausal mother-child communication.
Overall, it is exciting to witness greater involvement of adult children with their mother’s
middle life experiences. As women’s experiences in society are more diverse than ever, we can
expect to observe future interactions between mothers and daughters and mothers and son to be
equally as complex. Clearly, future research must formulate and test theoretical models to
Convention