title: Let it be: expatriate couples' adjustment and the upside of avoiding conflicts.
abstract: This research examines the moderating effect of conflict avoidance on the relationship between conflict and psychological adjustment among 45 expatriate couples at two points in time. We propose a model based on the actor-partner interdependence model, which assumes both intrapersonal and interpersonal effects, to address simultaneously the effects of one's own and the other's avoidance behavior. We found substantial support for our model, especially for expatriate spouses. As expected, and only for expatriate spouses, avoidance moderated the conflict-adjustment relationship such that both one's own and one's counterpart's avoidance behavior diminished the negative effect of conflicts. Because these effects were observed only at T2 and psychological adjustment decreased from T1 to T2, our research suggests that the impact of expatriation-associated interaction particularly manifests itself in the long run.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, The Netherlands. k.j.p.m.v.erp@tue.nl
authors.forename: Kim J P M
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: van Erp
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Giebels
authors.forename: Karen I
authors.initials: KI
authors.lastname: van der Zee
authors.forename: Marijtje A J
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: van Duijn
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants / Q000523:psychology*; D054541:Family Conflict / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012380:Role; D018454:Spouses / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult