Navigating New Horizons -The Influence of Host-Country Language Proficiency on Shaping the Coping Strategies of Self-Initiated Expatriate Acccompanying Partners: Problem-focused vs Emotional-focused

This thesis investigates how host-language proficiency shapes the coping strategies of self-initiated expatriate (SIE) accompanying partners in Finland, drawing on Lazarus and Folkman’s stress and coping framework. Using a qualitative approach and reflexive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews, the study explores how language functions simultaneously as a stressor and as a resource in everyday life. Findings demonstrate that limited proficiency heightened stress by restricting access to employment, public services, and autonomy, while developing proficiency facilitated resilience, problem-solving, and a greater sense of belonging. Coping responses were often hybrid, combining problem-focused actions with emotion-focused strategies. This challenges traditional dualities of coping and illustrates its dynamic, situational character in transnational contexts. A further contribution lies in the identification of a comfort paradox whereby reliance on English eased short-term adaptation but simultaneously delayed host country language learning, thereby limiting meaningful adjustment. This insight extends existing research by showing how the dual role of English complicates adjustment for accompanying partners. The study contributes at three levels: theoretically, by enriching understandings of coping and adjustment through the lens of language; conceptually, by introducing hybrid coping and the comfort paradox, and practically, by highlighting the importance of targeted integration support for accompanying partners. Ultimately, this research emphasises that host country language proficiency is not merely a technical skill but a socio-psychological resource that profoundly shapes the lived experiences of global mobility.