r The Association for Family Therapy 2008.

Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington

Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
Journal of Family Therapy (2008) 30: 425–437
0163-4445 (print); 1467-6427 (online)

Parenting adult children – invisible ties that bind?

Myrna Gowera and Emilia Dowlingb

This paper presents the authors’ ideas about parenting adult children,
describes some of the results of a larger qualitative research study and
explores possible implications for practice. The study is based on in-depth
analyses of narratives from interviews of a non-clinical population of
parents of adult children. It represents part of an ongoing study to
develop an understanding of an under-researched area of family life.

Introduction
There is a vast bank of literature on parenting and there are also
government initiatives to support parenthood. However, we know
that this becomes a marginalized discourse when children reach
adulthood. For instance, in adult mental health services parents can
easily be invisible in the service of ‘confidentiality’. Important cultural
narratives organize our constructions of parenting and being par-
ented. In the UK, a prevalent social discourse emphasizes separation
and autonomy, and considers ‘independence’ to be a sign of success
for families. Parents are expected to ‘let go’.
In 2002 we began our research into what happens to parenting
when children become adults. We started asking questions about how
parental responsibilities change across the life cycle and whether these
responsibilities cease over time. Our research has begun to uncover
fascinating narratives between parents and their adult children.
In previous presentations we have shared preliminary results from
our survey of nearly 200 parents and adult children. These results
emphasize new narratives of connectedness and represent a challenge
to the traditional view of the family life cycle. We are now in the
process of conducting in-depth qualitative analyses of narratives
a
Systemic family psychotherapist and teacher. Address for correspondence: School
of Psychosocial Studies Birkbeck College, Malet Street, London WCIE 7HX, UK. E-mail:
myrna@gower.mc.uk.
b
Chartered clinical psychologist and family psychotherapist, The Tavistock Clinic,
London, UK.

r 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation r 2008 The Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice
426 Myrna Gower and Emilia Dowling
arising from individual interviews. In this paper we begin to introduce
some clinical implications informed by the research evidence.
The literature tends to focus on aspects of the relationship between
adult children and their parents rather than on the ongoing parenting
process. McNab and Kavner (2001) explore contemporary discourses
of mothering and mother blame, and suggest that such dominant
stories perpetuate women’s beliefs of their mothering. These beliefs will
certainly continue and so are likely to show up in the style of mothering
adult children, but there is no attempt in their discussion to talk of the
effects of these beliefs on the ongoing parenting relationship with
adults. Leon and Jacobvitz (2003) studied adult attachment and family
rituals where they expected secure adults to report more meaningful
family rituals. Studies of Expressed Emotion (Goldstein et al., 2002), a
measure of family hostility and critical and/or emotional overinvolve-
ment towards a relative with a psychiatric disorder, have been shown to
be a reliable predictor of patient relapse. Freedman (1999) describes an
adult incest survivor’s experience when at age 35 she proceeds on a
journey of forgiving her father. All the above studies identify important
features, nuances and characteristics of the relationship between
parents and their adult children, but none position these considerations
within a discourse on the parenting process over time.
Kinship studies provide important sociological descriptions (John-
son, 1960) of family that are useful in the attempt to describe the
context of parenting adult children. For example, kinship terms by
which members in the nuclear family are referred to explicitly
indicate the relationship between the generation of the speaker and
the generation of the relative referred to (e.g. ‘father’ and ‘son’), and
so specify the generational differences. However, descriptions of the
psychological processes of parenting adult children remain elusive.
Carsten (2004) gives an interesting view of the past, present and
future of kinship in anthropology. The import of recent studies on
these ideas may be reviewed and applied to the psychological
relatedness between family members once adulthood is attained.
Carsten discusses the significance of public anxiety about the family,
of new family forms in the West and compares kinship institutions
across cultures. These ideas will go some way towards the develop-
ment of a framework, within which the psychological web of relating
with adult children can be informed. A handful of popular American
publications have been written on the subject (Bly, 1993; DiGeronimo,
2002; Frain and Clegg, 1997; Maisel, 2001; Smith, 1991). These
popular books seem to focus on ‘how to do it’ with exercises to help.

r 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation r 2008 The Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice
 Parenting adult children 427
No research base is evident. We have found no evidence of similar
popular material published in the UK.

Theoretical influences
Our research has been informed by theoretical ideas emerging from
the family life cycle (Carter and McGoldrick, 1980), attachment theory
(Bowlby, 1977, 1988; Main et al., 1985) and systems theory. We are
particularly interested in the relationship between systems theory,
attachment theory and narrative theory (Byng-Hall, 1995, 2008; Hill
et al., 2003). We have been influenced by social constructionist and
narrative ideas (Freedman and Combs, 1996; Hoffman, 1990). These
influences have been described in detail in a previous publication
(Gower et al., 2005). However, we want to emphasize that the
construction of the transition to adulthood in terms of independence,
separation and leaving home is a predominantly Western construc-
tion, in particular an Anglo-American construction, although this may
also be resonant in Northern European cultures.
The aim of the research
The aim of this research is to begin to identify adult parenting
narratives that have so far shown little prominence in research. New
(non-pathologizing) ways are being sought in order to describe the
processes involved. This research aims to find descriptions of parent-
ing adults as part and parcel of normal ongoing family life, high-
lighting the evolutionary and developmental nature of the task.
The first strand of the research comprised a research questionnaire
which generated relevant quantitative data (Gower et al., 2005). Some
interesting outcomes were extrapolated from the quantitative results
and are identified as the context and forerunner to the ongoing
deeper analyses of text, the focus of this paper. For example, in the
questionnaire results, ‘finance’ was the most frequently
reported concern for all parents. Over 60 per cent of respondents
nominated finance as a factor of concern in the relationship with
their adult children. While mothers did report significant concern
for the more practical elements of their children’s lives (e.g. finance,
education, the law, career and holidays), 50 per cent of the mothers
reported their concern about emotional problems compared
with only 18 per cent of the fathers. Adult children reported using
detachment more as a strategy than did their parents. Parents
did note their pride in parenting their adult children and their joy

r 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation r 2008 The Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice
428 Myrna Gower and Emilia Dowling
in remaining connected to them in adulthood. The areas reported
to be most difficult in being parents of adult children were to do with
partners, letting go and working out how best to communicate.
The second strand of the research, which constitutes the focus
of this paper, concentrates on individual interviews of a non-clinical
population. This procedure offered the next step in our attempts
to consider, in further depth, questions raised from the questionnaire
data and early results. An example of a raw narrative will be presented
and the ensuing analysis of the same text illustrated. Two of the
theoretical propositions generated from the full analysis have been
selected as an example illustration of the research outcomes.

Methodology
In order to illustrate this approach, one narrative has been selected.
The researcher (MG) transcribed an interview with a mother of
two adopted children. The interview was analysed using qualitative
research methodologies in order to explore the texts for meaning.
Emerson and Frosh (2004) talk about qualitative research as a
‘paradigmatic revolution’ away from the ‘modelling’ of behaviour
towards exploring potential meanings, and patterns through inter-
active and discursive processes. They suggest that this method of
research highlights the position of reflexivity and the researcher’s
position. The researcher’s expectations devise the questions and
create order when there is less clarity about a phenomenon.
For analysis of the text, attention was paid to Gee’s (1999) ideas
about the internal discourse of a text, trying to apply to each text what
he refers to as ‘the building blocks of discursive language’. Emerson
and Frosh’s (2004) critical narrative approach has been followed
where (1) slashes separate idea units if more than one per line; (2)
capitals represent focuses; (3) main line parts of the plot are under-
lined; (4) pauses are identified by time indications (e.g. (pause)), and
(5) line breaks indicate pacing of phrases around pauses or hesita-
tions. The text is then further divided into parts, strophes and stanzas.
Walkerdine’s Relational Reading Matrix (2005) was then applied to
the analysed narrative transcription. Walkerdine demands four types
of readings of the same text.

1 (a) Reading for the plot told. This includes the identification of the
main events, the protagonists and the subplots; the main events; the
protagonists; identification of the use of particular discourses,

r 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation r 2008 The Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice
 Parenting adult children 429
recurrent words, metaphors and contradictions in the story.
(b) Reflecting on the interviewer’s responses to the story told.
2 Listening for the ‘I’ speaking in relationships. Focus here is on how
Y experiences and feels about herself; how she makes sense of
herself in relation to others and how she represents herself and
deals with difference. This is explored through study of the use
made of the pronouns ‘I’, ‘we’ and ‘you’.
3 Listening for the self of the parent speaking in broader relationships.
4 Listening to the interviewer–interviewee relationship. Here the
attempt is to identify how Y and the interviewer construct and
negotiate specific meanings and counter-meanings as a way to give
further context and purpose to speech and agendas.
5 In this research a fifth reading or a fifth account of the conversation
has been added which is called a ‘societal reading’. This allows for
assumptions about the parenting relationship; assumptions about the
way parents of adults and their children think things should go, with
consideration to underlying economic and wider political factors.

Example of the narrative raw text (punctuated by the researcher)

Y: Uhm. Well it was uhm I was out gardening. I am always out gardening when I
am not working. It’s my relaxation thing. And uhm usually she just comes round hi
Mom uhm and whatever and have a chat and go away and make coffee or tea or
something or have a chat to Tim or and uhm this time she just came out uhm
(pause) yeah and I was gardening and dirty and everything and she just came out
Oh Oh Uhm Mom can I talk to you or something or I have something to say. I can’t
remember what she said whatever. Can I talk to you for a minute or uhm I have got
something to tell you I can’t remember what and I thought Oh, because she was, she
came in and out of the back and Tim was in the house first and she had a talk with
him and then she came out and I thought Oh maybe she has asked Tim for a loan
and he has said no and Uhm she is coming to see if she could ask me so I was kind
of. And then she came and uhm shhhhe, oh dear. Sorry. (Head in her hands)

MG: That’s alright. And then she . . .

Y: And Yeah, then she just said, I have got something to tell you and she just
stood there and she didn’t say anything and then yeah, and uhm sheeeee (pause)
uhm and then I looked at her and it was like tears coming so I just had this
chair I pulled up and said, ‘Sit down, what have you done?’ I knew it was
something and I thought no, it’s not money and no. She just said, ‘I’m
pregnant.’ And I thought . . .

r 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation r 2008 The Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice
430 Myrna Gower and Emilia Dowling
Whooh! Yeah and I said REALLY?! (Loud intonation) I didn’t even know you
had a boyfriend! (Laughing) and uhm and I said, I think I said ‘How? You haven’t
got a boyfriend.’ and she said, ‘Oh yeah, uhm for the past three months.’ Or
something. No. And uhm, yeah and then I just, yeah. Then I said, ‘Oh yeah. Really’.
The strange thing that came to my mind straight away uhm. Right, let it digest first
because the first thing that comes out of your mouth, that’s what they remember with
you and uhm and I just said, ‘Karen uhm, it is the last thing I would have wished
for you at this time, especially just getting uhm everything ready for college, but it is
not the end of the world.’ And uhm and then, I put my arms around her and said,
‘It’s not the end of the world.’ And uhm then she started sobbing and uhm yeah. And
then what happened? Uhm (pause) I think I just held her for a while and . . .

MG: You held her for a while.

Y: Yeah and then I just said, ‘It was strange this morning I was praying about
you’. Because there were this psalm (first three words of psalm inaudible). It is
just a beautiful psalm. I have got ‘Karen’s Psalm’ written on it. And uhm ’cos
uhm yea it is so special to me for her from when she was a teenager and I said,
‘Do you know I was just praying that for you this morning and I don’t know why.’
And uhm and then it kind of sunk in a little bit then. She was pregnant. And
then I said, ‘How, how far have you gone?’ And she said she wasn’t sure because
she didn’t know what was happening and uhm. And then straight away I thought,
Ahhh (drawing in breath), ‘I wonder what’s going to happen to the baby? because
these days I didn’t know what your plans were?’. And I just said, ‘Uhm, (pause)
what do you think about this baby, w–..hat is going to happen with this baby?’
She said, ‘Oh! I am going to keep this baby, I am keeping it.’ And I thought,
Ahhhhh! (drawing in breath). And I just kinda hugged her close and I said,
‘Oh Karen, I am so pleased because if you weren’t kept, if your Mum did not
keep you, I wouldn’t have had you.’
The same piece of text analysed
Strophe 2: When adult children return and appeal for help.
Stanza 1: Recognizing the approach but waiting for it to unfold.
Y: UHM. Well it was UHM Yeah I was out gardening.
I am always out gardening when I am not working.
It’s my relaxation thing.
And UHM usually she just comes round,
‘HI MOM,’ UHM and whatever
and have a chat/and go away/and make coffee or tea or something
/or have a chat to Tim or AND UHM
this time she just came out, UHM (pause)

r 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation r 2008 The Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice
 Parenting adult children 431
Yeah, and I was gardening and dirty and everything
and she just came out.
‘Oh Oh, ‘UHM, ‘Mom can I talk to you?’ or something or
‘I have something to to say’.
I can’t remember what she said whatever or
‘Can I talk to you for a minute?’ or UHM
‘I have got something to tell you.’
I can’t remember what
and I thought, ‘Oh!’
because she was,/she came in and out of the back
and Tim was in the house first
and she had a time with him
and then she came out
and I thought, ‘Oh, maybe she has asked Tim for a loan/and he has said no,
AND UHM, she is coming to see if she could ask me.’
So I was kind of . . .
And then she came and UHM shhhhe . . ... (pause)
Oh dear. Sorry. (Head in her hands)

MG: That’s alright. And then she . . .

Stanza 2: Pain of the adult daughter revealed immediately.
Y: And Yeah, then she just said, I have got something to tell you
and she just stood there
and she didn’t say anything
and then yeah, and UHM sheeeee . . . (pause) UHM
and then I looked at her/and it was like tears coming

Stanza 3: The mother reflects on her daughter’s pain and distress

above her own confusion.
So I just had this chair I pulled up/and said, ‘Sit down, what have
you done?’
I KNEW it was something
and I thought no, its not money and no.
She just said, ‘I’m pregnant.’
And I thought . . .
Whooh! YEAH and I said REALLY?! (Loud intonation) I didn’t even
know you had a boyfriend!
(Laughing) and UHM and I said, I think I said ‘How?/You haven’t
got a boyfriend?’ and she said, ‘Oh yeah, UHM for the past three
months.’ Or something.
No. And UHM, yeah and then I just, yeah. Then I said, ‘Oh yeah. Really’.
The strange thing that came to my mind straight away UHM./Right, let it
digest first because/the first thing that comes out of your mouth, that’s
what they remember with you.

r 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation r 2008 The Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice
432 Myrna Gower and Emilia Dowling
Stanza 4: The mother responds and her daughter permits her
protective embrace.
And UHM and I just said, ‘Karen UHM, it is the last thing I would have
wished for you at this time,/especially just getting UHM everything ready for
college,/but it is not the end of the world.’
And UHM and then, I put my arms around her and said, ‘It’s not the
end of the world.’ And UHM then she started sobbing and UHM yeah.
And then what happened?
UHM (pause) I think I just held her for a while and..
MG: You held her for a while.
Y: Yeah and then I just said, ‘It was strange this morning I was praying
about you.’ BECAUSE I WAS.
There were this psalm (first three words of psalm inaudible).
It is just a beautiful psalm.
I have got ‘Karen’s Psalm’ written on it.
And UHM ’cos, UHM yea it is so special to me for her from when she was
a teenager and I said, ‘Do you know,/I was just praying that for you this
morning/and I don’t know why.’

Strophe 3: The impact of the emotional distress of adult children on

their parents.
Stanza 1: The implications just begin to sink in.
AND UHM
AND THEN it kind of sunk in a little bit then.
She was pregnant.
And then I said, ‘How, how far have you gone?’
And she said she wasn’t sure/because she didn’t know what was happening
and UHM. And then (pause) straight away I thought, Ahhh (drawing in
breath), ‘I wonder what’s going to happen to the baby?/because these days
I didn’t know what your plans were?’
And I just said, ‘UHM, (pause) ww..what do you think about this baby;/ww..
hat is going to happen with this baby?’
She said, ‘Oh! I am going to keep this baby, I am keeping it.’
And I thought, Ahhhhh! (drawing in breath).
AND I JUST KINDA HUGGED HER CLOSE
And I said, ‘Oh Karen, I am so pleased/because if you weren’t kept,
if your Mum did not keep you, I wouldn’t have had you.’

Discussion: emerging theoretical constructions

It is important to emphasize that theoretical propositions were raised
after the extensive analysis (as described above) of two selected pieces
of text from the same interview was completed. The data was

r 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation r 2008 The Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice
 Parenting adult children 433
reviewed across a thematic analysis of the full interview transcript
where contradictions and confirmations of evidence were identified.
Two theoretical propositions about parenting adult children will be
described which emerged out of this analysis. Several further theore-
tical propositions have been identified but due to space limitations
cannot be addressed here: for example, the discomfort of parents
always being on watch for fear of being alienated; seeming to have a
relationship ‘always on their (the children’s) terms’; parents expecting
cooperation with their children but being aware that this may be
expecting too much; a gendered division of parental tasks; the way
cultural differences determine these tasks; strong beliefs about par-
enting seem to guide what parents do; and lastly, ‘respect’ seems to be
a crucial concept for parents in managing the parent/adult child
relationship.

Independence vs. ‘not so dependent’

How does this mother understand independence? She immediately
hones in on reassuring her daughter (e.g. ‘And uhm I put my arms
around her and said, ‘‘It’s not the end of the world’’’). She reassures this
daughter that society had enabled them to be a family on account of
her birth mother’s dilemma. She heightens the richness of this event
with expression of her joy as well as the wider sanction and an
enriched story is immediately attached to their earlier adoption
narrative (i.e. ‘Oh Karen, I am so pleased because if you weren’t kept, if
your Mum did not keep you, I wouldn’t have had you’). It is as if mother and
daughter become closer. She reassures her daughter. Both parents
declare they are there for her. Y reports her husband saying to her,
‘Yea, about Karen, going to have a baby. Right. Whenever she comes next or
when we speak to her we must find out if she knows if, where she can get help;
and uhm I can find out things uhm for her.’ It is as if the daughter appeals
to be able to depend on her parents and they seem to be able to follow
this behaviour. She is clear that she needs them but feels shameful in
asking. She leaves the house, asking her mother to tell her father the
news (i.e. ‘Can you tell him when I am gone?’). She cannot bring herself to
do this. The position of the daughter could be argued to provide
evidence that these parents had failed to raise an independent
daughter given that she had so obviously failed to thrive indepen-
dently. This seems not to be their narrative. This mother regards both
of her children as independent. Elsewhere in the interview she says
that her son lives at home and they support both of the children

r 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation r 2008 The Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice
434 Myrna Gower and Emilia Dowling
financially. Y did not seem to associate her daughter living away from
home with necessarily being more independent. She did not indicate
that her son was not independent. She described his work ethic and
said that she could call on him to assist her at times.
Some interesting contradictions emerge surrounding the meaning
of independence in this narrative and then in the wider interview, for
example:
 Y sees her daughter as very independent and someone who
does not show her feelings; yet the narrative is all about her
tearful and emotional appeal and need of her parents. Y said
that she was certain that her daughter would always approach
her on matters emotional.
 There is a closeness that emerges between the mother and her
daughter that seems somewhat incongruous with the parents
not knowing about their daughter’s prospective partner.

This mother holds an important distinction between little children

(with whom she works) and her adult children.
Y: Uhm The main difference is with my under fives they believe you completely.
They trust you. There is no kind of uhm saying no this is not so or they trust you,
is it implicitly?
This mother says that little children do not challenge or question
what you say. She struggles with the word ‘trust’ and says that there is
something different about the trust in you as a parent once children
grow up.
MG: What happens when you parent adult children?
Y: Yeah, they trust you as well but I guess they are experimenting more and they
don’t come back and check with you or uhm they are free sprits they are
experimenting more and uhm they have gone out and are living their own lives.
They are not so dependent I guess.
They are, Y says, ‘free spirits’. She does not say that they are
independent, but rather that they are no longer ‘so dependent’.
In a clinical meeting the client’s construction of ‘what is indepen-
dence’ will be central to meanings offered to the kinds of relating they
describe. Initially Y reported that there was much about her daugh-
ter’s life of which she was unaware. Looking with a clinical eye and
remembering that these children were adopted at birth, it would be
easy to consider ambivalent attachment at the least. The separateness
between Y and her daughter was illustrated in her parents knowing
seemingly little about their daughter’s social relationships.

r 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation r 2008 The Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice
 Parenting adult children 435
Y sees her daughter as very independent and someone who does
not show her feelings (e.g. ‘Yeah. It’s strange. (Laughter) It’s usually
because Karen is very independent doesn’t show her feelings and kind of keeps
things hidden’), yet the narrative is all about her daughter’s tearful and
emotional appeal and need of her parents. What we as clinicians
perceive to be appropriate dependence or independence between
parents and their adult children (no matter what age) will be different
from that of the client family. Cultural rules and values in Anglo-
American society in particular lean heavily towards a discourse
favouring independence. This analysis suggests that building a de-
scription with clients of ‘independence’ or rather of ‘not being so
dependent’ could create an essential context for new understandings of
behaviour presented for clinical consideration.

Affect: the inevitable range of feelings. Whose pain is it?

On first consideration Y is telling a story about her daughter. On
further analysis this is also a story about Y as a mother. She holds
herself central in this excerpt and reflects repeatedly on her own
position in relation to that of her daughter. The high frequency of her
use of the pronoun ‘I’ in the relaying of her daughter’s disclosure of
an unplanned pregnancy suggests the mother’s focus to be on the
impact the news had for her; her approach to the management of the
immediate crisis and her view on resolution. She was the one who
kept the emotional talk open between herself and her daughter; she
was the one to respond to the daughter’s plea to talk; she was the one
to hold her daughter; she was the one to help her daughter disclose
the news to her father; she defined successful resolution as the
daughter inviting her to accompany her to the scan (e.g. So uhm, I
waited I think, I waited until the dinner and then I told him at the table). The
affective position of this mother is particularly noted in this analysis.
Parents are usually expected to be ‘the adult’ in the parenting
interchange and in that sense to ‘know better’ and to handle most of
whatever comes along. Implicit is the apparent wisdom of parents (no
matter how old) that should be present on account of age and
experience. Is this what children should be able to expect from
‘good-enough’ parents? Y and her husband had to be there for their
daughter who found herself in difficulties. They somehow under-
stood that and were able to respond to this situation.
The plight of the young woman is essentially engaging and the
parental discourse requiring of lesser focus. The therapeutic chal-

r 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation r 2008 The Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice
436 Myrna Gower and Emilia Dowling
lenge will be to make room for consideration of the pain of the more
marginal discourse of parents taking care of adult children.

Concluding remarks
In this article we have reported an example of a narrative analysis
using the Walderdine method. We have identified two theoretical
propositions raised by the data which provide evidence of aspects of
the relationship between these parents and their adult son and
daughter. This example is part of an ongoing study where we have
used both qualitative and quantitative data emerging from a non-
clinical population in an attempt to develop our understanding of an
under-researched area of family life.

References
Bly, S. (1993) Once a Parent Always a Parent. Illinois: Tyndale House.
Bowlby, J. (1977) The making and breaking of affectional bonds. British Journal of
Psychiatry, 130: 201–210 and 421–431.
Bowlby, J. (1988) A Secure Base: Clinical Applications of Attachment Theory. London:
Routledge.
Byng-Hall, J. (1995) Rewriting Family Scripts. New York and London: Guilford
Press.
Byng-Hall, J. (2008) The crucial roles of attachment in family therapy. Journal of
Family Therapy, 30: 129–146.
Carsten, J. (2004) After Kinship. UK: Edinburgh University Press.
Carter, E. A. and McGoldrick, T. (1980) The family life cycle and family therapy:
an overview. In E. A. Carter and T. McGoldrick (eds), The Family Life Cycle. New
York: Gardner Press.
DiGeronimo, T. (2002) How to Talk to your Adult Children About Really Important
Things. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Emerson, P. and Frosh, S. (2004) Critical Narrative Analysis in Psychology: A Guide to
Practice. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Frain, B. and Clegg, E. (1997) Becoming a Wise Parent for your Grown Child. Canada:
New Harbinger Publications.
Freedman, J. and Combs, G. (1996) Narrative Therapy: The Social Construction of
Preferred Realities. New York: Norton.
Freedman, S. (1999) A voice of forgiveness: one incest survivor’s experience
forgiving her father. Journal of Family Psychotherapy, 10: 37–60.
Gee, J. P. (1999) An Introduction to Disciurse Analysis: Theory and Method. London
and New York: Routledge.
Goldstein, T., Miklowitz, D. and Richards, J. (2002) Expressed Emotion attitudes
and individual psychopathology among the relatives of bipolar patients. Family
Process, 41: 645–658.
Gower, M., Dowling, E. and Gersch, I. (2005) Parenting adult children: a project
combining narrative, clinical and empirical methodologies. In A. Vetere and E.

r 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation r 2008 The Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice
 Parenting adult children 437
Dowling (eds), Narrative Therapies with Children and their Families. Abingdon:
Routledge.
Hill, J., Fonagy, P., Safier, E. and Sargent, J. (2003) The ecology of attachment in
the family. Family Process, 42: 205–221.
Hoffman, L. (1990) Constructing realities: an art of lenses. Family Process, 29:
1–12.
Johnson, T. (1960) Sociology: A Systematic Introduction. London: Routledge &
Kegan Paul.
Leon, K. and Jacobvitz, B. (2003) Relationships between adult attachment
representations and family ritual quality: a prospective, longitudinal study.
Family Process, 42: 419–432.
Main, T., Kaplan, N. and Cassidy, J. (1985) Security in infancy, childhood and
adulthood: a move to the level of representation. In I. Bretherton and
E. Waters (eds), Growing Points of Attachment – Theory and Research. Monographs
of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50 (1.2).
Maisel, R. (2001) All Grown Up. Living Happily with your Adult Children. Canada:
New Society Publishers.
McNab, S. and Kavner, E. (2001) When it all goes wrong - challenge to mother
blame: forging connections between mother and daughter. Journal of Family
Therapy, 23: 19–207.
Smith, S. (1991) Making Peace With Your Adult Children: A Guide to Family Healing.
New York: Plenum Press.
Walkerdine, V. (2005) ESRC Identities Programme Workshop Psycho-social data
Analysis. Unpublished.

r 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation r 2008 The Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice