When family enters the picture: The model of cultural negotiation and gendered experiences of Japanese academic sojourners in the United States.

A grounded-theory study aimed at reconceptualizing cultural adaptation processes from gender role and family/couple perspectives while critically drawing from acculturation and culture and self literatures. In-depth interviews with 34 Japanese academic sojourners (international students, scholars) and their spouses (a total of 50 interviews with select longitudinal interviews) were conducted. The author earlier developed the Model of Cultural Negotiation (2001; 2006) capturing uneven and cyclical processes of dealing with multiple cultural contexts. The current study further develops more tailored versions of this model, Family-Based (Couple-Based) Cultural Negotiation and Individual-Based Cultural Negotiation, highlighting the impacts of family/couple and gender roles, especially for female spouses. These conceptualizations afford a sophisticated understanding of the processes of culture.