An Analysis Of The Rights Between Mother-in-Law And Daughter-in-Law In Urban Areas

Great changes have taken place in our country including peopl＇s life style and valueswith the rapid development of urbanization as China enters the social transition period. Andthe family structure has also changed since implement of the one-child policy—fourgrandparents, two parents and one child. The relationship between mother-in-law anddaughter-in-law has always been an important part in family sociology research, and it hasgreat influence on the family life. This kind of relationship has different characteristics indifferent times and environment. In a word, the in-laws’ rights relations have got imprint ofthe specific social structure and changes.This paper researches the rights relations between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law inurban areas in the perspective of urban family life, discusses the formation, operation andchanges of this relationship and how the relations affect the conficts, coorperation orrestriction between the in-laws.This research intends to show people how the social andcultural factors influence the family ties, the new features of the relationship betweenmother-in-law and daughter-in-law under the changes of family structure.This paper includes three parts.First section, presentation of rights relations betweenmother-in-law and daughter-in-law in urban areas. This part introduces the general situation oftheir relations by decription of housing, raising children, old-age care and interaction betweenmother-in-law and daughter-in-law.Second section, factors that affect the relationship betweenin-laws in urban areas. This part is carried out in the following three aspects—the strangers＇role under differential pattern; in-law relations in the perspective of social exchange; valuesdivergence in the aspects of family standard and personal standard. The third section isconstrast of relationship between two generations of mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, thispart tries to summerize the new features of their relations under the trend of smaller familystructure.By analysis and studies, this paper draws conclusions as follows—firstly, the resourcesof a family slide from mother-in-law to daughter-in-law; secondly, the family ties based on parenthood have great influence on the rights relations between mother-in-law anddaughter-in-law; thirdly, the relationship of in-laws have shown features of invisible conflictsand overall coordination; fourthly, the in-law relations are unseparated though sometimesalienated, and though the nuclear families could act on their own, they are not independent oftheir parents.