Semester

Summer

Date of Graduation

2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MA

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Communication Studies

Abstract

The goal of this thesis was to further the literature on mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relationships by directly employing Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) to examine relationships between categories of accommodation and relational quality in these relationships. Daughters-in-law (N= 677) were solicited via private Facebook groups to complete an online survey regarding accommodation (their own and their mothers-in-law’s), their feelings of shared family identity, and their relationship satisfaction in their relationship with their mothers-in-law. Results demonstrated relationships between mothers-in-law’s accommodation, overaccommodation, and underaccommodation of their daughters-in-law and daughters-in-law’s feelings of shared family identify and relationship satisfaction. Additionally, relationships were present between daughters-in-law’s feelings of shared family identity and relationship satisfaction and their accommodation (active and inactive), nonaccommodation, and reluctant accommodation of their mothers-in-law. These results confirm that CAT is directly applicable to mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relationships in thatbothwomen’s accommodation coincides with daughters-in-law’s perceptions of satisfaction and feeling like a family. Additional findings assert the importance of mediated communication, warrant further study of the nature of in-law dynamics, and invite researchers to reconsider the conceptualization of relationship satisfaction in mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relationships.

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