Cross-cultural adjustment of male spouses accompanying their wives on overseas assignment (China)

This exploratory, multiple-case study examined the process of transition and cross-cultural adjustment as male accompanying spouses experience it. Expatriate spouses of employed expatriates who had made a cross-cultural move to Taiwan participated, including 10 male accompanying spouses and 10 female accompanying spouses, aged from 25 to 49 and citizens of 6 different countries. Eleven participants had children living at home when they made the cross-cultural move to Taiwan. All had lived in Taiwan at least 6 months at the time of the study and had a variety of crosscultural experience prior to moving to Taiwan.; Data were collected with individual, face-to-face interviews to inform the research questions. Reports of the interviews were given to participants for verification before the findings were content-analyzed and a cross-case report was written.; Findings revealed that several variables that mitigate or cause stress for male and female accompanying spouses are the same, but other variables appear to ease or cause stress only for either male or female accompanying spouses. Several stressors are specific only to the country and culture of Taiwan; others are generalizable to a wider population. Findings suggest that organizations and individuals can affect the transition and cultural adjustment process by proactively finding ways to mitigate stress.