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Abstract
Relationships with in-laws can play an important role in individuals' lives. Dimensions of the early relationship and expectations of the future relationship may affect subsequent in-law ties. Men and women engaged to be married and their mothers (N = 240) completed interviews prior to and 6 to 8 months following the wedding. At time 1, participants reported behavioral emotional and cognitive dimensions of the relationship and open-ended expectations of their future tie. Multilevel models revealed that when the parties had individual contact and positive feelings before the wedding, ties were stronger following marriage. For coded open-ended descriptions, if family members expressed concern that their in-law relationship would not be close or if they mentioned other social partners as causing potential future problems, they reported more negative relationship quality after the wedding.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study was funded by the Berner Hanley Scholar Fund and the Center on Aging and the Life Course at Purdue University and by R01AG027769 from the National Institute on Aging.