An examination of the stress experienced by entrepreneurial expatriate health care professionals working in Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria, Paraguay, South Africa and Zambia.

Carraher, Shawn M. ; Sullivan, Sherry E. ; Carraher, Sarah C. 等

ABSTRACT

Although numerous studies have examined the outcomes of stress and personal adjustment, relatively little research has examined the most commonly used measures of stress--especially in regards to expatriates. Using a sample of 268 expatriates/business partners who were working in Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria, Paraguay, South Africa, and Zambia, we examine the validity of Dick's (1999, 2000) measure of international stress. Our factor analysis results suggest that there are ten rather than eight dimensions of international stress--with two of his dimensions each splitting into two dimensions. In light of the newness of Dick's scale as well as the lack of cross-cultural stress research, we suggest several areas for future research.

It is estimated that direct annual costs of stress and maladjustment of expatriates to U.S. multinationals is over $2 billion (Morris & Robie, 2001) while stress itself costs American businesses over $300 billion per year (APA, 1997). The UK reports that stress costs their economy many times more the costs of strikes and is equal to the annual industry losses due to theft, or about $8 billion a year (UKNWSN, 2002). The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has declared stress a workplace hazard (APA, 1997; UKNWSN, 2002). Given the serious economic and personal costs of stress, there has been a great amount of research on the causes and outcomes of stress (e.g., Antoniou, Davidson, and Cooper, 2003; Griffeth, Hom, and Gaertner, 2000; Sullivan and Bhagat, 1992; Taylor, Klein, Lewis, Gruenewald, Gurung, and Updegraff, 2000) especially in terms of the impact of life events on stress levels. Numerous studies (e.g., Hardie, 1997; London, 1997; Mainiero and Gibson, 2003) suggest that stressful life events can cause physical and psychological illnesses and decreased employee performance. A life event is considered stressful if "it causes changes in, and demands readjustment of, an average person's normal routine" (Kobasa, 1979, p.2).

Many types of work related events, including changes in the balance of work/family roles (Sullivan, 1992; Walls, Capella, and Greene, 2001), the transition from school to work (Crowson, Wong, and Aypay, 2000), taking a new job (London, 1997; Nelson and Sutton, 1990), discrimination, stereotyping and social isolation (Price, 2000; Shaffer, Joplin, Bell, Lau, and Oguz, 2000), job changes (Shaffera, Harrison, Gilley, and Luka, 2001), career plateaus (Duffy, 2000; Lemire, Saba, and Gagnon, 1999), job loss (Leonard-Wilkerson, 2001; London, 1997) job insecurity (Smithson and Lewis, 2000) and retirement (Budros, 2001; Potts, 2001) have been examined as stressful life events. Although many studies have been completed on stress, relatively little research has examined the most commonly used measures of stressful life events or on the measurement of the stress and adjustment of expatriates.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate Dick's (1999, 2000) measure of international stress, specifically by examining the validity of the measure with professionals in a multinational entrepreneurial organization. In the next section, we briefly review the research on the measurement of stressful life events. Next, we examine Dick's measure of international stress using a sample of 268 expatriates working in 10 countries in Africa and South America. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results for future cross-cultural research on stress.

MEASURES OF STRESSFUL LIFE EVENTS

Most of the research on stressful life events has used The Schedule of Recent Life Experiences, (Holmes and Rahe, 1967) or The Social Readjustment Rating Scale (Rahe, Lundberg, Theorell and Bennett, 1971) to determine the total amount of life stress an individual is experiencing (Miller and Rahe, 1997; Scully, Tosi, and Banning, 2000). The Schedule of Recent Life Experiences is a 43-item instrument that lists positive (e.g., marriage, vacation), negative (e.g., illness of family member, divorce), frequent (e.g., minor traffic violation) and rare (e.g., death of child) events. Individuals respond to the survey by checking the events they have experienced during the recent past, usually the previous six months or a year. Although the Social Readjustment Rating Scale examines similar life events as the Schedule of Recent Life Experiences, the former assigns weights to each of these events. In developing the Social Readjustment Rating Scale, the item marriage was used as an arbitrary anchor point for making ratings. Based on this anchor, each event was assigned a score, or life change unit, that represents the average amount of social readjustment required by the event. The life change units of the life events experienced by an individual are summed to arrive at his/her total life stress score.

Although these two scales are the most widely used approaches to quantifying stressful life events, they are not without problems (Rabkin and Struening, 1976). One potential problem with the scales is that they operate under the assumption that all life changes are stressful regardless of their positive or negative nature. Thus, both desirable and undesirable events are combined to arrive at a total life stress score. Several studies suggest that only negative life events affect illness (for reviews, see Sarason, Johnson and Siegal, 1978; Miller and Rahe, 1997; Van Der Doef and Maes, 1999; and Segrin, 2001). Furthermore, the scales fail to account for individual differences in perceptions regarding what is a desirable or undesirable event. For example, Firth (1985) used a case studies approach with managerial and professional clients of a psychological clinic dealing with life changes. She found that job promotions could be perceived as a negative event when an individual believes the job change carries too much responsibility. Ancidotal evidence also suggests that individual differences must be considered in determining the desirability of an event. While the unexpected death of a husband is an emotional and psychological blow to his wife, it may be a more devastating event for an emotionally disturbed woman than for one who is psychological healthy. Similarly, Dohrenwend and Dohrenwend (1984) also suggest that there are problems with the universality of perceptions regarding the amount of adjustment required by stressful life events. They found differences in perceptions based on area of the U.S., (e.g., urban versus rural location), and nationality.

Another problem with the scales is how life changes are quantified. Sarason, Johnson and Siegel (1978) argue that because individuals vary in how a life event affects them, values derived from group ratings, such as those used with the Social Readjustment Rating Scale, may not accurately reflect the impact of events on specific individuals. This is especially problematic when items are ambiguous. For example, the item "a major change in financial status" can reflect bankruptcy or gaining a large inheritance. Sarason and associates suggest that instead of using scores based on group averages, scores based on self-ratings of stressful life events should be employed. Research (e.g., Yamamoto and Kinney, 1976) has found that stress scores based on self-ratings of stressful life events were better predictors than scores derived by mean adjustment ratings similar to those of the Social Readjustment Rating. Moreover, Crandall (1992) has found that severity weights used with the Social Readjustment Rating Scale may not be even needed.

Hudgen (1974) questions whether the life events listed in the Schedule of Recent Life Experiences are predictors or outcomes of stress. Hudgen reported that 29 out of the 43 events listed were often the symptoms, not possible causes, of illness. Additionally, Lazarus and DeLongis (1983) question whether life event scales tend to contain events that are more likely to happen to younger than older individuals. Although research has demonstrated an inverse relationship between age and stressful life events scores, to conclude that individuals experience less stress as they age may not be accurate. Despite the rapidly increasing number of older individuals, many lists of life events do not include items that are often related to aging, such as chronic problems of infirmity, loneliness and limited energy. Future research should focus on improving scales so that they are valid across different cultures and age groups, and so that predictor and outcomes variables are not confused.

In order to overcome scale problems caused by individual differences, Sarason and associates developed the Life Experience Survey (LES). The LES, which lists 57 events, permits individuals to rate the desirability or undesirability of events and to individualize ratings of the personal impact of these events. Also, the LES has attempted to reduce ambiguity by making items more specific. For example, the Schedule of Recent Life Experiences contains the item "pregnancy," that many men fail to respond to even if their significant other is pregnant. To avoid such problems, the LES lists this item in two ways: Female: pregnancy and Male: pregnancy of wife/girlfriend. (1) Sarason and associates have reported that the scale appears to be relative free of effects of social desirability and mood states, and has moderate reliability. Although the LES has not been without its critics (Flannery, 1985), support for the possible ability to generalize the LES has even been found for individuals with personality disorders (Labonte and Paris, 1993), chronic illnesses (Littorin et al. 2001; Searle and Bennett, 2001) and across cultures (Biondi, Palma, and Pancheri, 1993; Khanna and Shirali, 1989).

Dick (1999, 2000), dissatisfied with the instruments available for measuring stress and adjustment in a cross-cultural setting, developed a multidimensional measure appropriate for expatriates. Based upon a review of research on international stressors and expatriate adjustment, he advanced a 51-item questionnaire purported to measure eight cross-cultural dimensions of stress, and potentially the adjustment of expatriates. The eight dimensions of Dick's scale are: (1) national government interactions--the expatriates interactions with the host country government, (2) national organization interactions--the expatriates interaction with the organization's host country head offices, (3) personal care--the degree to which the expatriate has individual needs taken care of for housing and food, (4) work--job related stressors, (5) language--preparation and ability to communicate in host country languages, (6) country--factors about the country such as political instability, (7) organization--organizational specific factors such as level of communications required by the home office, and (8) support--degree of support received from home country.

Using a sample of 500 missionaries working in sixty countries, Dick conducted a validation study of his new instrument. With the use of limited information factor analyses, he found mixed support for the instrument but suggested that additional research be performed in this important area. Following from the work of Dick, the purpose of the present study is to continue the examination of the dimensional nature of Dick's international stress questionnaire for future researchers interested in cross-cultural stress and adjustment.

METHODOLOGY

Sample

In order to examine Dick's measure, we surveyed entrepreneurial/ intrapreneurial expatriates working for a large, multinational professional services organization in the health care field. The organization is co-owned by the professional employees, and therefore in many respects can be thought of as a large partnership. Surveys were sent via the organizational internal mail system to 330 employees in the ten countries in which the organization operated (Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria, Paraguay, South Africa, and Zambia). The surveys were accompanied by a letter from the Chief Executive Officer encouraging their participation. Two-hundred and sixty-eight professionals returned the survey for a response rate of 81.2%.

The sample was almost evenly split by gender: 53.7% of the sample was men and 46.3% was women. The average age of the respondents was 43 years old, with an average of 8 years of organizational tenure and a medium of three international postings. The respondents were highly educated: 100% of them had post graduate training, as they consisted of physicians, dentists, and pharmacists who jointly co-owned the organization. Within each country the expatriates also worked together in teams with each team having a wide degree of latitude in order to bring in revenues for the organization. Each work team in essence operated as its own small business independently contracting with the government and hospitals within their service area.

Instruments

The primary instrument examined was Dick's (1999, 2000) 51-item international stressors scale, which Dick purports to contain eight dimensions related to expatriate stress. Items are measured using a Likert-like format with responses ranging from "Strongly Dissatisfied" (1) to "Strongly Satisfied" (5).

The secondary instruments include Hemphill's (1956) 12 item viscidity index (viscidity is defined as the degree to which the members of a group function as a team), Brayfield and Rothe's (1951), 13 item Index of Job Satisfaction, and Kahn's (1964) 14 item from the Index of Job-related tensions in Organizations. These three scales have been proposed to be associated with antecedents of expatriate adjustment (Black, Mendenhall, and Oddou, 1991; Hechanova, Beehr, and Christiansen, 2003; Joshi, Labianca, and Caligiuri, 2002; Tsang, 2001). All three had coefficient alpha estimates of reliability of at least .93.

ANALYSES AND RESULTS

Because the dimensional stability of Dick's scale has not been established, we performed two principal components analyses, one orthogonal and one oblique. Based upon a hyperplane count from the two analyses (275 to 285), support was found for using the orthogonal results. The parallel analysis criterion (a sample based adaptation of the eigenvalue greater than one criterion) was used to determine the number of dimensions to retain. As can be seen in Table 1 a clear ten dimensional structure was supported by the data--and this was also supported by a scree test. The ten orthogonal dimensions we found are: (1) language preparation, (2) host country home life, (3) host country job demands, (4) interpersonal work related stressors, (5) organizational communications, (6) home country support, (7) ability to speak local languages, (8) national government interactions, (9) educational opportunities for the expatriate's children, and (10) country political factors (i.e., how stable is the country). Surprisingly, these dimensions are similar to those found by Dick (1999, 2000), with two of his dimensions--personal care and language--splitting into two dimensions each: host country home life and educational opportunities for children, and language preparation and ability to speak local languages, respectively. The coefficient alpha estimates of reliabilities for the scales ranged from .69 to .95 with a median of .78.

In order to compare the dimensions to other job facets related to stress and adjustment, in Table 2 we report the correlation of the ten dimensions with responses to Hemphill's viscidity index (how well does the work team function together), Brayfield and Rothe's job satisfaction index, and Kahn's index of job-related tensions. We found viscidity was related to the expatriate's host country job demands, their ability to speak the local language, and the interpersonal work related stressors. These findings suggest that work teams would likely function better if expatriates knew the language so that they could overcome language barriers in order to communicate effectively, if interpersonal work related stressors were lower, and if host country work demands were lower [as can be seen in Table 2 there is a negative relationship between host country job demands and viscidity]. Interpersonal work related stressors were also significant statistically when related to job satisfaction and job-related tensions, highlighting the important influence of interpersonal relationships for both the individual and organization. Host country home life was also significant statistically when related to job tension, supporting the notion that stress from the home life can creep into the workplace. There was also a surprisingly positive relationship between country political factors and job satisfaction indicating that the health care professionals who accept these challenging assignments tend to thrive in situations where the political tension is greater.

DISCUSSION

The theme of research on life events is that change may be stressful and require adaptation. Therefore, individuals who have recently experienced many life changes are more susceptible to the harmful effects of stress and are less likely to perform well as expatriates. Dick (1999, 2000) developed an instrument to measure the specific life event stress of being an expatriate. Our study attempted to validate this scale and indicated the need for future validation research. Although Dick proposed an eight dimensional scale, we found ten distinct dimensions with the dimensions being highly similar to his eight dimensions. We believe that the similarity in the results add strong support to the validity of Dick's scale due to the differences in the samples employed. Dick used missionaries who were members of a religious order, while we used health care professionals who were part of an employee-owned professional service organization. Although both samples were highly educated, the motivations for becoming expatriates likely varied between the two samples (Carraher, Carraher, and Whitely, 2003; Carraher and Whitely, 1998; Navara and James, 2002).

Another interesting line for future research could be the integration of ideas from the transition literature into the literature on stressful life events. For instance, the literature on transitions (Bauer and McAdams, 2004; Nicholson, 1987; Schlossberg, 1981) suggests that previous transitions influence future transitions. Anecdotal evidence, as well as life stage research (Krane, Greenleaf, and Snow, 1997; Kulik, 2001; London, 1997; Sullivan, 1999), suggest that early adversity can lead to increased performance later in life. Further research needs to be completed in order to examine whether early life events produce an "inoculation effect" that lessens the impact of other negative events and is able to increase the performance of expatriates in potentially trying overseas assignments.

While more than 220 published and unpublished papers have been written which examined issues related to the impact of cross cultural training on adjustment or job performance in international settings, most lack empirical support (Morris and Robie, 2001). In the most recent published meta analysis on the antecedents and consequences of employees' adjustment to overseas assignments, no empirical studies were identified which examined the impact of cross-cultural training on the stress of expatriates (Hechanova, Beehr, and Christiansen, 2003). Moreover, little research (e.g., Rowe, 2000) has examined formal programs aimed at decreasing the effects of any stressful life events. For example, Saam, Wodtke and Hains (1995) using a sample of 42 employed managers demonstrated that those managers who participated in structured, weekly counseling sessions had significantly lower levels of stress and were reemployed sooner than mangers who received unstructured information about stress management. Similarly, in this study, we found that well designed language and culture training could potentially reduce the stress levels of expatriates. More evaluation of such programs would aid organizations in helping their members cope with stressful life events and identify what types of programs can assist first time expatriates.

An additional area for research is to examine what organizationally related and demographic variables may be able to serve as a proxy for stress level and the ability to handle stress in cross-cultural situations. For instance, drawing from the research on the matching model of occupational choice (Hollenbeck, 2000; Vandenberg and Scarpello, 1990) it is possible that occupations requiring higher levels of stress are likely to attract individuals who possess the ability to deal with higher levels of stress. Thus, it is possible that one's occupation may serve as a proxy for one's ability to cope with life stress. Alternatively, it is also possible that differences in age (Trevor, 2001), organizational tenure (Cable & Parsons, 2001), job tenure (Chowdhury and Geringer, 2001), compensation systems (seniority vs merit systems; Balkin and Montemayor, 2000), organizational hierarchical levels (Carraher and Buckley, 1996; Cotton and McKenna, 1994; Goodwin and Ziegler, 1998), and/or work and team structures (job rotation vs no job rotation; Burke and Moore; 2000; Cotton, 1977) may be related to individual's ability to handle stress and thus should be examined as potential proxies for an individual's ability to handle life stress in international assignments.

Finally, although some research has examined gender differences in response to stressful life events, relatively little focus has been given to minorities or cultural differences (Bradley, Fryar, and Van Riper, 2003; Carraher and Whitely, 1998). We suggest that additional cross-cultural research be performed and factors that may be unique about cross-cultural and global sources of stress, dissatisfaction, and illnesses should be examined. Dick's international stress scale is one step in this direction, and we recommend that further validation studies of the international stress questionnaire be conducted.

In conclusion, the purpose of this paper was to examine measures of stressful life events and specifically conduct a validation study of the international stress scale recently developed by Dick (1999, 2000). We found support for a ten dimensional structure as opposed to an eight dimensional structure suggested by Dick, but the dimensions were similar to those proposed by Dick. Correlation analysis did find several of the dimensions to be statistically related to scales measuring viscidity, job satisfaction, and job related tensions. Finally, we recommended a number of areas for future research on stressful life events, with an emphasis on increasing the potential performance of expatriates. With the increasingly global entrepreneurship the expatriate experience is likely to become even more common in the future and therefore further study could be helpful. We hope that this modest beginning encourages other scholars to research Dick's measure of international stress as well as other measures of stressful life events in expatriate samples working in cross-cultural entrepreneurial organizations.

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ENDNOTES

(1) Social norms and medical advances continue to evolve, this item may also need to be modified to include the pregnancy of women in same sex relationships, such as illustrated by celebrities including Melissa Ederigde, or the use of surrogate mothers. Moreover, the increasing impact of technologically-induced stress may not be adequately captured by current measures.

Shawn M. Carraher, Cameron University

Sherry E. Sullivan, Bowling Green State University

Sarah C. Carraher, Consolidation Enterprises

Table 1--Principal Components Analyses

 F1 F2 F3 F4 F5

Paperwork (host) .059 .120 -.049 -.179 -.109
Housing -.006 .284 -.017 .069 .329
Housing rates .085 -.059 .104 -.041 .407
Relation (loc. gov) .038 -.058 .198 .062 .132
Relation (host gov) .108 -.007 .171 .032 .138
Relation (supervisor) .052 -.014 .081 .660 .129
Relation (expat. coworkers) .103 .362 .017 .466 .176
Relation (host coworkers) -.031 .094 .317 .299 .110
Relation (subordinates) .010 .242 .104 .040 .330
Children's Education Opp. .052 .128 .122 -.001 .067
Quality of Education .110 .081 .002 -.064 .117
Quality of Medical Care -.072 .330 .383 .065 -.071
National Client Demands .052 .035 .807 .112 .027
National Org. Demands .041 .033 .781 .030 .073
Local Org. Demands .136 .145 .785 -.004 -.009
Local Client Demands .045 .003 .653 .089 .177
Home Country Client exp. -.034 .100 .099 .014 .032
Home Country Org. exp. .011 .191 .113 -.022 .101
Location Isolation -.110 .331 .343 .139 .077
Communication facilities .155 .477 .283 .158 -.110
Climatic conditions .230 .466 .201 -.165 -.050
Home Gov. Paperwork .108 .234 .013 .039 .486
Family Member Health -.063 .550 .086 .001 .269
My health -.096 .537 .128 -.057 .253
Time Preparation Meals .018 .645 -.033 .116 -.051
Time Household .064 .644 -.023 .167 .045
 Functioning
Work Demands supervisor -.005 .127 -.036 .361 .157
Home Org. Paperwork .080 .222 -.023 -.028 .547
Friends Available .202 .405 .163 .218 .174
Local Job tensions .349 .216 .332 .271 -.071
Work/Family tensions .238 .270 .061 .543 -.108
Orientation of Interns .080 .098 .144 .500 -.226
Host Org. Communications -.003 .002 .111 .613 .388
Head Org. Communications .097 -.056 .143 .256 .680
Depart. Org. Commun. -.023 -.024 .076 .066 .722
Workload .004 .398 -.187 .199 .091
Spouse's workload .143 .306 -.010 .089 .063
Pre-field language training .317 -.162 .091 .330 -.023
Length of time for training .466 -.192 .047 .270 .108
Development Plan Prep. .249 .063 -.142 .383 .107
Field access to lang. res. .636 .165 -.006 .135 .112
Clear exp. Int. Lang. learn .776 -.071 .021 .216 .016
Clear exp. Ongoing lang. .797 .051 .076 .196 .060
Methods eval. Lang. .863 .121 .042 -.023 -.001
 learning
Regular eval. Lang. learn .833 .095 -.023 -.001 .014
Need learn 2 + lang. .521 -.039 .134 -.082 .020
Work diff. Between cowork -.105 -.254 -.068 -.478 .031
Political instability Host -.098 -.139 -.113 -.016 .029
Violent lawlessness Host .038 .025 .050 -.135 -.144
Abli. to undstand lang. -.172 -.168 -.118 .068 .121
Abil. to speak trade lang. -.160 -.146 -.076 .025 .099
Eigenvalues 6.866 3.797 2.777 2.576 2.318
Coefficient Alpha .850 .720 .780 .740 .690

 F6 F7 F8 F9 F10

Paperwork (host) -.022 .298 .494 .020 -.305
Housing .175 .117 .197 .109 -.168
Housing rates .272 .052 .173 -.220 -.379
Relation (loc. gov) .029 .012 .714 -.063 .016
Relation (host gov) -.106 .024 .738 .047 -.024
Relation (supervisor) .169 -.016 .008 -.043 .066
Relation (expat. coworkers) -.253 .076 -.024 -.047 -.211
Relation (host coworkers) -.008 -.007 -.057 -.006 .344
Relation (subordinates) -.137 -.019 -.133 .009 .231
Children's Education Opp. .053 .058 -.014 .860 -.025
Quality of Education .101 -.030 .041 .867 .017
Quality of Medical Care .018 .123 .286 .209 .016
National Client Demands -.054 .005 .164 .068 -.067
National Org. Demands -.013 -.045 .194 -.041 .035
Local Org. Demands .101 -.024 .004 -.003 -.074
Local Client Demands .139 -.129 -.007 .107 .039
Home Country Client exp. .889 .028 -.054 .097 -.082
Home Country Org. exp. .875 .068 -.051 .049 -.049
Location Isolation .255 -.105 .296 -.175 .039
Communication facilities .044 -.059 -.014 -.022 -.080
Climatic conditions .210 .104 -.241 .000 .216
Home Gov. Paperwork -.067 -.033 .140 -.285 .181
Family Member Health -.088 .050 .063 .046 -.199
My health .035 -.116 -.002 -.005 -.026
Time Preparation Meals .118 -.147 .000 .107 .021
Time Household .109 -.095 .026 .104 .068
 Functioning
Work Demands supervisor .340 -.250 .137 .070 .091
Home Org. Paperwork .108 -.129 .012 -.047 -.023
Friends Available .043 .138 -.042 -.104 -.063
Local Job tensions .082 .257 -.092 -.164 .169
Work/Family tensions -.038 .029 -.043 -.046 -.151
Orientation of Interns .004 -.037 .313 .056 -.108
Host Org. Communications -.018 .050 .081 .109 .063
Head Org. Communications .005 .178 .049 .208 -.059
Depart. Org. Commun. .114 .131 .088 .262 -.095
Workload .267 -.230 .185 .056 .158
Spouse's workload .237 -.127 .303 .173 .050
Pre-field language training .066 -.248 .265 -.080 .021
Length of time for training -.022 -.340 .045 .051 -.191
Development Plan Prep. -.043 -.278 .205 -.054 .091
Field access to lang. res. -.004 -.268 .065 .120 .064
Clear exp. Int. Lang. learn -.029 -.095 -.030 .082 -.090
Clear exp. Ongoing lang. -.115 -.083 .068 .090 -.055
Methods eval. Lang. -.023 .010 .111 .033 .015
 learning
Regular eval. Lang. learn -.007 .054 .064 .053 .035
Need learn 2 + lang. .156 -.039 -.055 -.173 -.045
Work diff. Between cowork .067 -.094 .179 .050 .038
Political instability Host .057 -.095 -.122 -.082 .724
Violent lawlessness Host -.115 .230 .128 .040 .716
Abli. to undstand lang. .011 .825 .074 .023 .031
Abil. to speak trade lang. .027 .837 .076 .035 .041
Eigenvalues 2.027 1.871 1.796 1.647 1.604
Coefficient Alpha .930 .950 .780 .890 .720

F1 = Language Preparation

F2 = Host Country Home Life

F3 = Host Country Job Demands

F4 = Interpersonal Work Related Stressors

F5 = Organizational Communications

F6 = Home Country Support

F7 = Ability to Speak Local Languages

F8 = National Government Interactions

F9 = Educational Opportunities for Children

F10 = Country Political Factors

Table 2: Correlations of 10 Dimensions of International Stressors with
Viscidity, Job Satisfaction, and Job Tension
n ranges from 219 to 227 due to missing values)

Correlations: VISCIDIT JOBSAT JOBTENS

 F1 .123 .072 .081
 P=.065 P= .283 P= .230

 F2 .046 .068 .190
 P= .494 P= .311 P= .005

 F3 -.135 -.005 .078
 P= .042 P= .939 P= .251

 F4 .266 .294 .220
 P= .001 P= .001 P= .001

 F5 .102 .060 -.095
 P= .125 P= .372 P= .160

 F6 .086 .027 -.047
 P= .198 P= .686 P= .487

 F7 .130 -.118 -.056
 P= .050 P= .078 P= .409

 F8 .073 .012 -.030
 P= .272 P= .861 P= .659

 F9 .049 .028 -.027
 P= .461 P= .675 P= .692

 F10 -.070 .150 .052
 P= .297 P= .025 P= .448

F1 = Language Preparation

F2 = Host Country Home Life

F3 = Host Country Job Demands

F4 = Interpersonal Work Related Stressors

F5 = Organizational Communications

F6 = Home Country Support

F7 = Ability to Speak Local Languages

F8 = National Government Interactions

F9 = Educational Opportunities for Children

F10 = Country Political Factors