Spousal Adjustment
entry by Julie M. Marx, Global Family Expert at Expat Valley
The degree to which an accompanying partner adapts successfully to the social, cultural, and practical demands of life in the host country. Identified in the research literature as one of the strongest predictors of overall international assignment success and of the assignee’s own adjustment and performance, making it a critical (and frequently underserved) area of organizational support.
Comparable terms
Partner adjustment (HR/mobility — preferred contemporary term; gender-neutral) · Accompanying partner wellbeing (coaching, destination services — broader; includes psychological and social dimensions) · Family adjustment (HR/mobility, research — encompasses children and other family members alongside the partner) · Spouse satisfaction (older HR research — functional measure; contested for its transactional framing)
Why this matters
Partner adjustment is one of the best predictors of assignment success or failure. If the spouse is struggling, the whole family and the assignee’s performance are affected. Centering spousal adjustment legitimizes support beyond the employee alone.
Cross-references
Accompanying Partner (Transitions & Mobility); Assignment Failure (Transitions & Mobility); Social Network Building (Family Dynamics); EAP (Wellbeing & Mental Health); HCN (Family Dynamics); Family Resilience (Family Dynamics); Flourishing (Wellbeing & Mental Health). AP is the contemporary professional term for the role whose adjustment this entry documents. Social network building and HCN relationships are the two behavioral strategies most consistently associated with positive spousal adjustment in research. EAP is the organizational support mechanism most directly available when adjustment difficulty exceeds the individual’s coping resources. Family resilience is the systemic context within which spousal adjustment occurs — partners adjust better in family systems with strong communication and shared meaning-making. Flourishing describes the positive wellbeing outcome that adequate spousal adjustment support aims toward.
Sources
Research consistently shows that families with a supportive climate, good family communication, and a positive perception of the international assignment experienced more successful adjustment, with healthy partner relationships identified as critical to expatriate family functioning. Caligiuri, P.M., Hyland, M., Joshi, A. & Bross, A. (1998). Testing a theoretical model for examining the relationship between family adjustment and expatriates’ work adjustment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83(4), 598–614.
The most frequently explored relationship in expatriate family research is that between spousal adjustment and assignee adjustment, with evidence consistently showing that partner wellbeing has both crossover and spillover effects on the assignee’s own performance and engagement. Lazarova, M., Westman, M. & Shaffer, M. (2010). Elucidating the positive side of the work-family interface on international assignments. Academy of Management Review, 35(1), 93–117.
« Back