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Thesis

French

ID: <

10670/1.vm03dp

>

Where these data come from
Family Identity Redifinition to International Assignments : the Expatriate Spouses Adaptation Model

Abstract

Spousal adjustment issues to host country are a major reason for expatriate assidûment failure and the main focus of our field study. By combining elements of Berry's conceptual framework for the analysis of acculturation attitudes with Ward and colleagues' theorising on cross-cultural adjustment of sojourners, our research examined, among other predictors, host-national and conational identification in relation to sociocultural and psychological adaptation of 96 expatriates spouses. This research highlights, through completed questionnaires and interviews, that our proposed integrative model of research is highly reliable to predict psychological and sociocultural adjustment. Results revealed two main effects. Considering the adaptation process, subjects with strong involvement in the decision making process of expatriation will experience a better psychological adaptation during cross-cultural transitions. In addition, those with a strong hostnational identification will largely experience a better socio-cultural adaptation during their assignment abroad. The effect of identity change is however limited as a large majority of subject chose the separation acculturation strategy, implying a weak identification to the host-national culture and a strong identification to the co-national culture. The investigation makes a useful contribution to theoretical developments in the study of acculturation of a specific group: the french expatriates spouses living abroad. Moreover, the study corroborates the validity and the empirical distinction of psychological and sociocultural adaptation, as acculturation strategies and the predictors of adjustment's domains in the vast and expending literature on acculturation and identity.

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