| Families in cross-cultural transitions were the subject of this study. Family systems theories were applied to understanding the relationships between certain family characteristics (i.e., cohesion, flexibility, communication, and satisfaction) and the outcome measures of cross-cultural adjustment (i.e., psychological adjustment, sociocultural adaptation, and acculturation strategy) after international relocation.;The variables of family cohesion, flexibility, communication, and satisfaction were used as predictors in this study. The cohesion dimension consisted of balanced cohesion (i.e., indicator of healthy family functioning) and enmeshment and disengagement (i.e., indicators of problematic family functioning). Similarly, the dimension of family flexibility consisted of balanced flexibility (i.e., healthy) and rigidity and chaos (i.e., problematic). The family variables were measured using the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales (FACES IV) (Olson, Gorall, & Tiesel, 2004). Psychological adjustment after international relocation was measured by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) (Radloff, 1977). Sociocultural adaptation was measured using the Sociocultural Adaptation Scale (SCAS) (Ward & Kennedy, 1999). Acculturation strategy was measured using the Acculturation Index (Ward & Rana-Deuba, 1999).;A multinational sample of sojourners (n = 198) was obtained using an internet based survey. Results showed that enmeshment and disengagement, the problematic extremes of family functioning on the cohesion dimension, were significant in predicting depression (i.e., psychological adjustment), explaining about 20% of the variance. Sociocultural adaptation was predicted by balanced family cohesion, flexibility, and disengagement, explaining about 11% of the variance. A relatively small percentage of the variance could impact the total adjustment considering the fact that family adjustment has been described as an antecedent to expatriate adjustment. Finally, the family variables selected for this study did not predict group membership in acculturation strategy. |
