• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.49 no.7
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• pp.123-133
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of relationship variables between mother-in-law and son-inlaw on a son-in-law's relation-satisfaction and negative perception. The son-in-law subjects were 319 married men aged 20-70 years, who were living their mother-in-laws in Daegu, Kyungpook, the Seoul National Capital Area(Seoul, Kyeonggy, Incheon), Busan or Kyungnam. The major findings of this study are as follows: (1) there was a significant difference in a son-in-law's relation-satisfaction of his relationship with his mother-in-law according to the number of children and (2) mutual support and a mother-in-law's conflicting attitude toward her son-in-law affected the son-in-law's relation-satisfaction and negative perception of his relationship with his mother-in-law.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.233-247
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• 2017

This study compares how mother-daughter differentiation influences solidarity and relationship satisfaction between mothers-in-law and sons-in-law. The subjects of this study were 167 mothers-in-law (mean age, 59.6 years) paired with their sons-in-law (mean age, 36.9 years). Participants were given quantitative survey questionnaires on their relationships. Descriptive statistical analyses were conducted for the social and demographic characteristics of mothers-in-law and sons-in-law. Ordinary least square multiple regression analyses were also conducted to examine the level of mother-daughter differentiation, solidarity, and relationship satisfaction between mothers-in-law and sons-in-law. The results show that a higher age of the mothers-in-law results in lower relationship satisfaction between mothers-in-law and sons-in-law. Next, an increase the level of mother-daughter differentiation (which means more balance between intimacy and detachability) results in a higher overall solidarity, affectual solidarity, giving functional solidarity, and consensual solidarity between mothers-in-law and sons-in-law. However, there was no statistically significant difference in the receiving functional solidarity and normative solidarity between mothers-in-law and sons-in-law. Finally, the results show that a higher level of mother-daughter differentiation produces a higher relationship satisfaction between mothers-in-law and sons-in-law. The findings could provide a better understanding of inter-generational relationships in Korean family dynamics. The results also have implications for providing counseling for the development of healthy relationships between mothers-in-law and sons-in-law.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.9
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• pp.557-569
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• 2021

This study was conducted with 193 pairs of mother-in-law and son-in-law to examine the mediating effect of marital satisfaction on the relationship between interpersonal differentiation and affectual solidarity. Using SPSS and PROCESS macro program, descriptive statistical analysis(frequency, ratio, mean, and standard deviation) and mediating effect analysis through bootstrapping were performed. The main research results are as follows. First, in the case of the son-in-law, his own marital satisfaction completely mediated the relationship between the sub-factors of interpersonal differentiation (fusion with others, emotional cutting) and affectual solidarity. Second, in the case of mother-in-law, the perceived daughter's marital satisfaction partially mediated the relationship between the sub-factors of interpersonal differentiation (connectivity, separability) and affectual solidarity. These findings suggest the functional importance of the marital system for a healthy relationship between mother-in-law and son-in-law.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.58 no.3
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• pp.417-428
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• 2020

This study investigates the effect of in-law relationship on the marital adjustment of married couples by considering family-oriented Korean culture. Previous in-law studies did not consider the influence of another party who did not attend the survey due to sampling limitations. However, the marital adjustment of married couple and the satisfaction of the relationship with parents-in-law are two-way relationships that affect each other and are not one-sided relationships. By considering the non-independence of the couple's data, Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) was utilized to examine the structural relationship between marital adjustment (marital satisfaction and marital stability) and in-law relationship quality (relationship satisfaction between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law for wives, relationship satisfaction between mother-in-law and son-in-law for husbands) of 203 married couples. Results indicated that a high satisfaction of wives' in-law relationship increased personal marital adjustment as well as husbands' marital adjustment. The husbands' positive relationship with in-laws also increased personal marital adjustment and their wives' marital adjustment. The results of this study can be used as basic data for program development and counseling for healthy in-law relationship as well as educational data for couples intending to marry.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.1093-1107
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of stress types and coping styles on the relationship quality with mothers-in-law perceived by sons-in-law. The data was collected from 300 sons-in-law aged 20~49 by using a survey questionnaire. The main results of this study were as follows: first, factor analysis yielded 4 types of coping(cognitive understanding coping, avoidant coping, direct behavior coping, and indirect behavior coping) and 7 types of stress(despising poor ability and condition, interference in daily life, son-in-law discrimination, wife discrimination, uncomfortable interaction, differences in lifestyle, and excessive demand). Second, the total stress perceived by sons-in-law in the relationship with their mothers-in-law was affected by avoidant coping and cognitive understanding coping. Finally, the relationship quality between mothers-in-law and sons-in-law was influenced by avoidant coping, uncomfortable interaction stress, direct behavior coping, differences in lifestyle stress, son-in-law discrimination stress, interference in daily life stress, frequency of meeting, cognitive understanding coping, indirect behavior coping, and age. Consequently, it was confirmed that sons-in-law's coping styles with stress from their mothers-in-law was more influential than the amount of stress perceived by sons-in-law on the relationship quality with their mothers-in-law. Especially, 'avoidant coping' among 4 styles of coping and 'uncomfortable interaction stress' among 7 types of stress influenced the relationship quality between mothers-in-law and sons-in-law the most.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.355-369
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• 2014

The in-law relationship traditionally plays a major role in Korean marriages and families because parents-in-law prefer to stay with their son under the same roof. The recent spike in the number of intercultural matches in South Korea may be provoking changes in the traditional family experience. The object of this qualitative study was to explore the contextual factors causing conflicts between mothers-in-law and their daughters-in-law in multicultural families. Six mother and daughter in-law dyads from rural areas of South Korea were recruited and interviewed. We found that the mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law had had different motives for the marriage at first. Five major themes emerged from the analysis of the dyadic interviews: the conflicts of the participants were embedded in the alternative family formation, in financial strains and the power structure, barriers in communication, cultural insensitivity and conflicts between value systems, as well as in role conflicts due to differing role expectations and hegemony. In conclusion, the authors of this study suggest that increasing cultural sensitivity and communication skills in immigrant daughter-in-law an Korean mother-in-law relationships will be crucial for a healthy in-law relationship. The need for the availability of Multicultural Family Centers' services in the community was highlighted. In order for mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law to form positive relationships, it is important to facilitate a variety of easily accessible educational programs in the community focusing on fostering the mother-in-law's understanding of the daughter-in-law's perspective.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.1103-1122
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• 2009

In this essay, I compare the ways in which the mid-thirteenth century English romance, Floris and Blancheflour, represents relationships of the Spanish pagan queen to her adoptive Christian daughter who becomes her daughter-in-law, with the ways in which Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale and other so-called Constance romances delineate relationships between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law. What draws me into these romances is the fact that they both convey the intergenerational relationships of women. However, the texts become distinct from each other in the way in which each depicts women characters and their relationships with one another. In this paper, I argue that the level of intimacy that the mother-in-law figure has with the daughter-in-law figure plays a defining role in making the former perform her agency for or against the latter. In the Man of Law's Tale and other Constance romances, the daughter-in-law figure is in every sense an alien or 'outsider' to the mother-in-law figure. To the contrary, Blancheflour in Floris is a sort of 'insider' to the queen because they lived in the same household for fourteen years-ever since the girl's birth. The queen, therefore, should have a high degree of intimacy with Blancheflour. I argue that the pagan queen's intimacy to the daughter of a Christian-European captive has enabled the queen to protect the girl as her adoptive daughter first and as a daughter-in-law second, namely contributing to her unreserved endorsement of the inter-racial-religious-class union between her only son, Floris, and Blancheflour. This is one major factor that distinguishes the relationship of the queen and Blancheflour in Floris from the dysfunctional relationships of mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law in the late medieval Constance romances, where women of different generations are strangers to each other, and no way is imagined for women of different races and religions to get along with each other.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.107-121
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• 1973

As Korean society of today is rapidly changing, the value system which has been traditionally accepted in the family ought to undergo inevitable changes. This paper aims at investigating and analyzing the prevalent value system of the family and the degree to which it is changing in the middle-class families in Seoul. Particular attention has been paid in this paper to the relationship between a married women and her mother-in-law. The conclusion at which this paper has arrived are as follows : (1) more than the half of both married women and their mothers-in-law of the middle class in Seoul feel satisfaction for the family life ; yet the rest who have responded in terms of "average" seem in fact to feel unsatisfactory in their marriage, even though they do not specifically regard themselves "unhappy" ; (2) generally, married women, including their mothers-in-law, prefer the independent, autonomous household management ; (3) both married women and their mothers-in-law wish to live independently but the former prefer the living-together with their mothers-in-law ; (4) married women plan to support economically the parents-in-law more than the latter want to be supported ; (5) the relationship between the parents-in-law and the married women is regarded as "good" by 62% of the former while the latter in 41% only see it in "good" terms, which indicates actually their unhappy psychological state ; (6) married women in general dislike their husband's sisters in comparison with their mothers-in-law, which seems to betray the commonly accepted view that married women go worst off with their mothers-in-law ; (7) the absolute majority of women, whether a parent and her son's wife, believe that the maintenance of a good relationship between families is essential to the happiness of marriage ; (8) surprisingly, a great majority of married women whichever their side may be think that no interference with their children's home is better ; (9) more than a half of mothers-in-law expect their son's wife to live distance from her own parents ; (10) married women believe that the good cause for a better marriage lies in mutual understanding and help exchangeable between them and their mothers-in-law. This investigation has shown, to be sure, some of the salient problems in family relations which will certainly encourage further attempts to study.