The link between parent expatriation stress and child outcomes: A conceptual expatriation stress process model

In 2021, an estimated 87.5 million expatriates relocated internationally for career reasons, often accompanied by their families. While expatriation offers many opportunities, every relocation can create unique stress. This paper proposes the Expatriation Stress Process Model (ESPM), a conceptual framework designed to illustrate how parental expatriation-related stressors may affect the well-being and adjustment of children through the couple and family system processes. The ESPM model draws on family stress theory, including the Family Stress Model (FSM) and the ABCX/Double ABCX models, to conceptualize psychological, occupational, and situational/social stressors experienced by expatriate employees and accompanying partners. The model outlines theoretically derived pathways through which stress appraisals may influence parental well-being, couple functioning, family dynamics, and child outcomes, while also incorporating spillover and crossover effects, direct stressors affecting children, and parent-, family-, and child-level risk and protective factors. The ESPM highlights the systemic and dynamic nature of stress in expatriate families and organizes existing knowledge into an integrative conceptual framework. It identifies key areas of theoretical convergence and conceptual gaps that warrant empirical investigation. The model provides a foundation for future empirical research examining stress processes in expatriate families and may inform the development of theory-informed support interventions and policies, pending empirical validation. This paper offers a family-centered conceptualization of expatriation stress that explicitly integrates child, parent, and relational processes, extending existing family stress models to the context of global mobility. • Expatriation can significantly elevate stress levels among expatriate parents. • This stress can lead to emotional and behavioral reactions. • Parental responses may influence the entire family system. • The systemic effects of parental expatriation stress impact Third Culture Kids.