Learning Self-Talk: The Impact of Mother-Daughter Dynamics on the Development of Intrapersonal Communication

This thesis explores how daughters learn intrapersonal communication—specifically, self-talk—through their relational experiences with their mothers. Drawing from symbolic interactionism and intrapersonal communication theory, the study examines how maternal messages are internalized and echoed in daughters’ inner dialogues. The central research question, “How do daughters learn self-talk from their mothers?”, guided a thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2019) using a phronetic iterative approach (Tracy, 2020) of qualitative interviews with ten adult daughters. Findings reveal that self-talk is both inherited and reshaped. Some daughters adopted their mothers’ internal language, while others developed self-talk in reaction to emotional absence, pressure, or modeled anxiety. Themes include the transmission of performance-based worth, emotional hyper-vigilance, body image concerns, and efforts to rewrite internal narratives through self-awareness and therapy. These patterns reflect how familial communication informs not only external behaviors but also private patterns of thought. Contributing to the growing field of intrapersonal communication, this thesis situates self-talk within family dynamics, especially the culturally nuanced mother-daughter relationship. The study underscores the need to view internal dialogue as a socialized process, shaped by emotional modeling, language use, and gendered expectations. Implications include new possibilities for mental health interventions, therapeutic practice, and parent education that address how everyday communication can foster either resilience or internalized self-criticism. Ultimately, this study affirms that self-talk is not fixed—it is inherited, relational, and open to redefinition.