Abstract
This study provides a discussion on how family structure affects marital conflict resolution strategies for middle-aged married women in South Korea and its socio-cultural contexts. A questionnaire survey was conducted on 187 South Korean married women. The result found a model explanation of relationships between family structure and marital conflict resolution strategies: (1) Bond of father and mother causes mother’s high other-orientedness, and power of mother over father does mother’s high self-orientedness. (2) When mother’s recognition that bond of father and child is strong, there is high possibility that mother selects yielding than conciliation.(3) When bond of mother and child is strong, there is high possibility that mother selects yielding than competition. Power of child over mother causes mother’s low self-orientedness and high other-orientedness, in particular, yielding. These results can be ascribed to distinctive South Korean family structure, that is, family-orientedness, child-orientedness, and patriarchal system.
