---
title: Can a mother's PMS affect whether her daughter gets PMS? | Niyora
description: Daughters of mothers with PMS are much more likely to have PMS themselves. 79% of daughters whose mothers had PMS got symptoms, compared to only 18% of daught
url: https://niyora.com/research/papers/the-biopsychosocial-model-menstrual-attitudes-sources-of-information-and-1992/
---

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- Can a mother's PMS affect whether her daughter gets PMS?

Case-control study, 1992

# Can a mother's PMS affect whether her daughter gets PMS?

Daughters of mothers with PMS are much more likely to have PMS themselves. 79% of daughters whose mothers had PMS got symptoms, compared to only 18% of daughters whose mothers did not have PMS.

 Moderate study design

Mothers diagnosed with or without PMS and their adolescent daughters (79 total)

## What they did

Researchers studied mothers who had been diagnosed with or without PMS and their firstborn adolescent daughters. They asked the mothers and daughters about their attitudes toward menstruation and where daughters had learned about periods. They counted how many daughters had premenstrual symptoms.

## What they found

Daughters of mothers with PMS had premenstrual symptoms 79% of the time, while daughters of mothers without PMS had them only 18% of the time. Mothers with PMS thought menstruation was debilitating and bothersome, but their daughters did not share this view. Daughters got different information about menstruation based on whether their mother had PMS.

## What it means for you

Having a mother with PMS may increase a daughter's risk of PMS, possibly because daughters learn about menstruation from an affected mother. However, negative attitudes about menstruation do not seem to be the cause. A limitation is that the study only compared daughters with and without mothers with PMS.

79%

Daughters with PMS symptoms if mother had PMS

18%

Daughters with PMS symptoms if mother had no PMS

## About the study

Original title The Biopsychosocial Model: Menstrual Attitudes, Sources of Information, and Premenstrual Symptomatology among Mothers with and without PMS and Adolescent Daughters Authors Carol A. Wilson Journal Health Education Year 1992 Study design Case-control study Participants 79 What was tested None Read the paper [doi.org/10.1080/10556699.1992.10616332](https://doi.org/10.1080/10556699.1992.10616332)

## Topics

[Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-pms/)[Students and academic performance](https://niyora.com/research/topics/life-area-education/)[Adolescents and young people](https://niyora.com/research/topics/life-area-adolescents/)[Stigma, attitudes and culture](https://niyora.com/research/topics/life-area-stigma-culture/)

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