Abstract
The aim of the study was to investigate victimisation of married women from aggression perpetrated by the mothers-in-law, and its psychological concomitants. A questionnaire was completed by 569 married women in Pakistan. The mean age was 31.4 years (SD 9.1). Mothers-in-law perpetrated more verbal and indirect aggression than physical aggression against their daughters-in-law. Anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive symptoms, and somatisation were all associated with aggression perpetrated by the mothers-in-law. The mothers-in-law had significantly more often than the husbands perpetrated indirect aggression against the daughters-in-law, while the husbands had perpetrated both physical and verbal aggression against their wife significantly more often than the mothers-in-laws. It was concluded that aggression perpetrated by mothers-in-law is a significant problem and associated with mental health problems in married Pakistani women.
Highlights
1.1 Family Hierarchy and Generational Roles A joint family in South Asia has been defined as more than one generation of a family living together in the same household where the family members succeed one after the other according to a predefined hierarchical structure and take on different roles (Mirza, 2017)
4.1 Three Types of Aggression Perpetrated by the Mothers-in-law against their Daughters-inlaw The least common form of aggression that the mothers-in-law perpetrated against their daughters-in-law was physical aggression (m = 0.15)
It was found that the correlational coefficients between anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive symptoms, and somatisation with victimisation from physical aggression perpetrated by the mother-in-law were all significantly lower than the coefficients for victimisation from verbal and indirect aggression (Table 1)
Summary
1.1 Family Hierarchy and Generational Roles A joint family in South Asia has been defined as more than one generation of a family living together in the same household where the family members succeed one after the other according to a predefined hierarchical structure and take on different roles (Mirza, 2017). Daughters are considered inferior in Indian culture and mothers and sons naturally enjoy a higher status which gives more bargaining and controlling power to a mother-in-law over the daughter-in-law (Rew et al, 2013). Such patriarchal hierarchies in households lead to many psychosocial issues in the life of a married couple (ibid). It has been found, in a Pakistani sample, that daughters-in-law who were more than average victimised from dowry-related aggression had significantly higher scores on anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive symptoms, and somatisation than daughters-in-law who were less than average victimised from dowry-related aggression (Khan, Österman, & Björkqvist, 2020). Another study has found that married women suffered from anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and severe physical and mental exhaustion due to constant overwork at home as well as from gossip and complaints being conveyed to the husband by the mother-in-law (Mirza, 2017)
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