Expatriate Adjustment - Resources, Responses, and Outcomes

This study examined expatriate adjustment in terms of social resources, support for coping responses, and adjustment outcomes in a sample of expatriates residing in Russia. The goal was to achieve a more complete understanding of expatriate cross-cultural adjustment by examining adjustment within a social context. Results from this research indicate that the general adjustment of expatriates is significantly related to satisfaction with social contact with local nationals, socioemotional coping support, and instrumental coping support. A surprise finding of this research was the statistically significant correlation between reported frequency of social contact with other expatriates and perceived discrimination from other expatriates. Overall, this study supports the emphasis on quality of social contacts over frequency of social contacts as a dimension of cross-cultural adjustment. However, since results also indicate the presence of expatriate in-group discrimination they may bring new questions for research that emphasizes the buffering role of the expatriate community on adjustment.