Mother/Daughter-In-Law Conflict: Communication in Family Intergenerational Relationships in Chinese Culture

Abstract

Grounded in communication accommodation theory and conflict management frameworks, we examined conflict-initiating factors and management styles in the written scenarios of intergenerational communication in mother/daughter-in-law conflict from 135 Taiwanese daughters-in-law. Content analysis results showed that mother-in-law-to-daughter-in-law (MIL-to-DIL) criticism (42.2%, n = 57) was the most frequently reported initiating factor of intergenerational conflict, followed by MIL-to-DIL illegitimate demand, daughter-in-law-to-mother-in-law (DIL-to-MIL) criticism, and generation disagreements/generation gap. The results also revealed that the most frequently adopted conflict management style by mothers-in-law was the competing style (84.4%, n = 114), especially in managing conflict initiated by MIL-to-DIL criticism and illegitimate demand. When mothers-in-law adopted the competing style, daughters-in-law tended to converge to the same style 41.2% of the time. Implications of the findings were discussed with reference to past studies on intergroup/intergenerational communication and aging research, conflict management in family intergenerational relationships, and the age-based Chinese cultural value of filial piety.