Attitudes toward Mother-in-Law and Stepmother: A Cross-Cultural Study

Making Sense of Hurtful Mother-in-law Messages: Applying Attribution Theory to the In-Law Triad

“…MILs and DILs do not (directly) choose one another and have little to no relational history before becoming family. The non-voluntary nature of the relationship, along-side society's negative stereotypes of MILs (Adler, Denmark et al, 1989), might lead DILs to perceive that MIL/DIL relationships are less meaningful than those with spouses and children. The hurtfulness of certain types of MIL messages may, there-fore, not be as consequential to DILs' relational satisfaction.…”

“…Grandchild mistreatment often coincides with another noted concern-preferential treatment toward another child or child-in-law and his/her family (Merrill, 2007). Overall, the themes of MIL misbehaviors reflect a sense of over-or underinvolvement with the DIL's immediate family (i.e., spouse and child) and/or criticisms of the DIL and her family of origin, reflecting the undesirable stereotypes cross-culturally ascribed to MILs (Adler, Denmark, & Ahmed, 1989).…”

Women in Conflict: on the moral knowledge of daughters‐in‐law and mothers‐in‐law

“…In this way the daughter-in-law views her mother-in-law as her real mother and accepts her authority (Wolf, 1968). Needless to say, cross-cultural studies on mothers-in-law and stepmothers report on negative attitudes compared with mothers and grandmothers (Adler et al, 1989).…”

“…The broadest documentation regarding the problematic relationship between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law is found in anthropological research (Adler et al, 1989). In some African families, for example, the daughter-in-law is incorporated into the family only after she has been instructed by the mother-in-law as to how to be a woman (Shanas & Streib, 1965).…”

“…Of the two mothers-in-law, the daughter's mother is a legitimate subject for jokes, most often by the sons-in-law. As for the son's mother, she is a mysterious figure with whom the relationship is doomed to be problematic even beyond any humour (Duvall, 1954;Marotz-Baden & Cowan, 1987;Adler et al, 1989;Cotterill, 1994).…”