Evaluation of family structures of married women and examination of the role of mother-in-law in the family

The study aims to examine the married women with their mother-in-law relationship in terms of various variables, to determine the role and effects of the mother-in-law in the family. The research model is a completely mixed, sequential, and equal status model among mixed research methods. The universe of the research is the daughters-in-law who are married with children and living with their mothers-in-law in Turkey. For the quantitative part of the study, the measurement sampling method and snowball sampling method were used. For the qualitative part, the easily accessible case sampling method was used. The data in the quantitative part of the study were collected through AYDA and Personal Information Form. The data in the qualitative part were collected via the interview with the daughter in law form. 501 people were included in the quantitative part of the study and 16 people participated in the qualitative part. The quantitative data of the study were analyzed with Kruskal Wallis-H test, Mann Whitney-U test and Spearman Brown Rank Difference Correlation analysis. Qualitative data were analyzed by the content analysis method. According to the quantitative findings of the research, the perceived relationship between daughter-in-law and mother-in-law differs according to the education level of the daughter-in-law, the cultural similarity/difference of the families of the couple, the household proximity/distance of the daughter-in-law/mother-in-law, the frequency of visits of the daughter-in-law/mother-in-law, the approval of the marriage by the families, and the mother/son relationship type. The perceived relationship between daughter-in-law/mother-in-law did not differ significantly according to the work status of the daughter-in-law, duration of the marriage, education level, and working status of the mother-in-law. The family harmony level of the daughter-in-law differs according to the daughter-in-law and mother-in-law household proximity, meeting frequency, and the perceived relationship type between the daughter-in-law/mother-in-law. A positive significant relationship was found between the family harmony level and the perceived relationship between daughter-in-law and mother-in-law. According to the qualitative findings of the research; four themes related to daughter-in-law/mother-in-law relationships and the role and effects of the mother-in-law in the family system have been identified. These are the daughter-in-law's assessment of the determinants of the daughter-in-law/mother-in-law relationship, the conditions that include the mother-in-law into the daughter-in-law family system, the roles of the mother-in-law into the daughter-in-law family system, and the effects of the mother-in-law into the daughter-in-law family system. Supportive data were obtained in the comparison of the quantitative and qualitative findings of the study in the literature. A model proposal is presented based on the findings of the research.