A Comparative Study On The Relationship Of Mother-in-law And Daughter-in Law In The Background Of Changing Family Structure

Of all the factors which influence marital happiness and family harmony in the modern home, the bad relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in -law has the bad impact on the couple-law relationship which become the "second killer" second only to the extramarital affairs. It has been dubbed the impact of marital quality, "cancer." So we can say treatment-law relationship is the key to dealing with other relationships. As the accelerating process of the nuclear family structure, the growing manifestations of relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in -law is also increasingly become one of the issues of concern.Semi-structured interviews and participant observation is used as main methods in this study on the basis of reading a lot of literature materials and observations. Purposeful sampling method is also used. The firsthand materials are obtained from 20 couples of mother-in law and daughter-in-law from Foshouwan,Rizhao City,Shandong Pronvince who are interviewed and observed by the investigator. The study is gone on the changing family structure on the background of the process of urbanization. Interviews are focused on four factors,such as the social factor, village factor, family factor and personal point .The daughter-in-law who are interviewed are born in from 1950 to1980s. On this basis, the role expectations theory are used to obtain first-hand material collations and analysis of qualitative data .Starting from the structure of the family,combined with the characteristics of the village, the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is concluded,which are classified into many types,such as repression-subject type, exclusion-patient type, no problem at all type, indifference type,distance-based type, pay-return type,effort-not to please type and so on.By comparison, relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is found quite different under the three family structures which are stem families, nuclear families and ,and subtle changes occurred in a different way: the dissolution of mother-in-law groups and the rise of daughter-in-law groups, from single-labor-pay to both- emotional-pay, the way to deal with the internal contradictions is trended to internalization After the types of relationship are studied,the factors which affected the relationship are studied also,which conclude the social factor, village factor, family factor and personal point.Based one this,several methods are proposed:the mother-in-law and the duaghter-in-law should have a correct orientation,and should give full play to the role of intermediary and so on. At the end of the study, the conclusion about the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is summarized by the investigator:the conflict between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law had become hidden from dominant, led by the mother-in-law to the balance of power;impact on the relationship began more diverse and complex;the rights and obligations between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law the is more obvious unequal.The root causes of conflict in mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, the understanding about"home"and the"filial piety"are all explored by investigator lastly. Maybe researchers will find more research goals later which inspired by the Research.