Abstract

The purpose of this study is to compare the mother-/daughter-in-law relationship of Taiwanese daughters-in-law and Vietnamese daughters-in-law. For this research, 266 Vietnamese and 509 Taiwanese daughters-in-law were selected as the subjects. The results indicated that, when compared with their Taiwanese counterparts, Vietnamese daughters-in-law felt they had a significantly more positive relationship, due to the support and companionship of their mothers-in-law. On the other hand, Vietnamese daughters-in-law also recognized that their mothers-in-law had a more dominant role. In addition, daughters-in-law of families with a household income less than NTD 30,000 (around USD 1,000) and an educational level of middle school or less felt that their mothers-in-law were more dominate. The findings also showed that mothers-/daughters-in-law who never lived together had a less positive or negative relationship. However, contrary to expectations, when excluding factors such as the educational level of the daughter-in-law, family income and proximity valuables, the ethnicity of the daughter-in-law still made a significant difference in the support, companionship, and dominance of the relationship.

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