In addition to her filial responsibilities to an aging parent, a middle-aged woman typically has a variety of vocational, parental, marital, and social obligations. A role theory perspective was used to examine how women's competing obligations and conflicting filial norms can affect their relationships with their elderly mothers. The degree to which a daughter's perceived role strain was related to both the affectional quality of her relationship with her elderly mother and her elderly mother's psychological well-being was examined in 40 middle-aged women and 24 of their elderly mothers. Daughters completed a questionnaire on filial behavior, filial role strain, and relationship quality; rated the amount of assistance they gave their mothers; rated role conflict and role overload; and completed Bengston's Affectual Solidarity Scale. The 24 mothers completed a modified version of the Affectual Solidarity Scale and rated their current levels of happiness and loneliness. The results revealed that, compared to daughters who reported low levels of role strain, daughters who reported greater role strain had poorer quality mother-daughter relationships from the perspective of both daughter and mother, and their mothers had lower psychological well-being. These findings suggest that social policies and programs which relieve the role strain experienced by adult daughters may be of benefit to older parents. (NB)