Since the reform and opening up 40 years ago, domestic academic circles have maintained a high degree of attention to academic issues related to the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. Based on the retrieval of related papers of CNKI from 1979 to 2018, it is found that academic circles have conducted in-depth research on the nature, types, characteristics and endogenous mechanism of the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, and achieved fruitful results. However, on the whole, there are not only existing researches but also the lack of interdisciplinary research and integration in the research perspective. In the research theory, there are more references from overseas theories, less construction of local theories, less specialized and integrated research in the research theme, less new academic growth points, more emphasis on qualitative research, less quantitative research, less comparative research and many other deficiencies, which need to be improved in future research.