“She Was My Egg Donor, Not My Mom”: Using Attribution Theory to Understand How Adult Daughters Manage Their Low‐Quality Daughter‐Mother Relationship

This study employs attribution theory to examine how adult daughters from low-income backgrounds perceive and manage low-quality daughter-mother relationships. Using in-depth interviews and flexible coding, we analyzed how daughters (n = 42) attribute locus, responsibility, specificity, and stability. Daughters often located control internally within their mothers, citing enduring traits as sources of conflict while noting external influences such as trauma or substance abuse. Responsibility was frequently self-assumed despite blaming mothers, positioning attribution as a means of asserting agency. Many saw their relationships as uniquely difficult and consistent, reinforcing perceptions of stability and specificity. Our study extends attribution theory to long-term family bonds, portraying adult daughters as active agents in meaning-making across the life course.