Life Role Salience Dimensions and Mental Health Outcomes Among Female Expatriate Spouses in Turkey

Abstract

Using life role salience theory, we investigated the extent to which occupational, parental, marital, and home care roles explained mental health outcomes among female expatriate spouses. Participants (N ¼ 86) were from English-speaking Northern American or Western European countries; the average age was 38. Results of a two-way within-subject analysis of variance suggested that the occupational role was least important. In a comparison of role expectations, participants had greater value for (than commitment to) their parental role; the reverse was true for the marital role. Results of a path analysis explained 10% of the variance in psychological distress via a direct path from career role importance (b ¼ .14) and an indirect path from the marital role importance through marital satisfaction (b ¼ À.12). Three paths (parental role importance, b ¼ .14; home care role importance, b ¼ .15; indirectly from marital role importance through marital satisfaction, b ¼ .18) explained 24% of the variance in psychological well-being.

A Content Analysis of Career Development Theory, Research, and Practice—2013

“…Several trends are apparent when past topic content in the literature (see Table ) is compared with the current 2013 analysis (see Table ). Examples of topic content that have remained constant over time include the following: RIASEC (e.g., Chason, Bullock‐Yowell, Sampson, Lenz, & Reardon, ; Dozier, Sampson, & Reardon, ) and life‐span, life‐space career theories (e.g., Bikos & Kocheleva, ; Pisarik, Rowell, & Currie, ); the design and use of career assessments; individual characteristics, such as ethnicity, disability, gender, and race; the nature and process of decision making; and the centrality of employment as an outcome. Change in topic content is evident in the increasing attention paid to topics such as social cognitive career theory, career construction–life design theory, and other constructivist theories; STEM occupations; social justice; social class/socioeconomic status; calling; career‐life coaching; social media; and public policy.…”

Development of career capital during expatriation: partners' perspectives

“…Therefore, expatriation presents varying degrees of challenge to expatriate partners' core identity and leads to redefinitions of identity across social, cultural and personal domains (Collins and Bertone, 2017;McNulty, 2012). Experiences abroad can affect partners' perceptions of how they value their careers (either past, current or future) and professional choices (Bikos and Kocheleva, 2013) and how they can maintain their self-esteem in changing situations (Brown, 2008). Therefore, international experience may also influence future career interests.…”

“…The findings indicate that partners need to learn new behaviors and skills to adjust (Ali et al, 2003;Kelly and Morley, 2011). Expatriation may also lead to changes in a partner's life role and identity (Bikos and Kocheleva, 2013;M€ akel€ a et al, 2011) and adversely affect subjective well-being (Haslberger and Brewster, 2009;Kanstr en and M€ akel€ a, 2020). The adjustment to new roles and status may be even harder for male partners (Richardson and Zikic, 2007;Tharenou, 2008).…”

Qualitative Job Insecurity, Negative Work-Related Affect and Work-to-Family Conflict: The Moderating Role of Core Self-Evaluations

“…We used bootstrapping estimates and constructed bias-corrected confidence intervals (90%) to test the indirect effects. The 90% CI was commonly used with small samples (e.g., Bikos & Kocheleva, 2013). As showed in Table 3, the indirect effects of QJI on work-to-family conflict were significant through psychological contract violation T2 (estimate = .06, CI 90% = [0.007, 0.147]) and job dissatisfaction T2 (estimate = 0.13, CI 90% = [0.044, 0.248]).…”