Interaction of Daughter-In-Law and Mother-In-Law in aHousehold Giving Effect on their Physical Symptom and Psychological Health Level Applied by the Todai Health Index

Abstract

In order to know the interaction of physical symptom and psychological health of daughter-in-law and those of mother-in-law living together in the same household, an attempt was made to apply a self-administered health questionnaire, the Todai Health Index (THI), to 36 daughters-in-law, who have twenty to twenty five-year-old daughters, and the paired mothers-in-law. Two female control groups were sampled of the same generation of mother-in-law (control A) and daughter-in-law (control B), who live in the suburbs of three big cities. Twelve scales and two discriminant function values (DF values) of THI are as follows: SUSY, subjective symptoms; RESP, respiratory; EYSK, eye and skin; MOUT, mouth and anus; DICE, digestion; IMPU, impulsiveness; LISC, lie; MENT, mental instability; DEPR, depression; AGGR, aggressiveness; NERV, nervousness; LIFE, irregularity of life; PSD, psychosomatic; NEURO, neurosis. The mean scores of SUSY, RESP, EYSK, DEPR, PSD and NEURO of daughter-in-law are significantly lower than those of mother-in-law, which are mainly on the decrease of those in daughter-in-law, and AGGR of daughter-in-law is significantly higher than that of mother-in-law. There are significant correlations of IMPU, DEPR, NERV, PSD and NEURO, which are on the psychological scales, between daughter-in-law and mother-inlaw. While there are no significant correlations of twelve scales and two DF values between control A and B. For daughter-in-law and mother-in-law, living together in the same household for a few decades gives a better influence on the health of the both.