Influence of Subsystem between Parent-in-law and Children-in-law on Marital Adjustment in Marital Subsystem

Abstract

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.