Families who have migrated to Orange County, California: Experiences and strategies

This dissertation was designed to study family systems who had recently migrated to Orange County, California; to learn about their experiences and the coping strategies they used to make adjustments to a new home and lifestyle. Instruments for data collection included an in-depth questionnaire designed at University of Nebraska Department of Human Development and the Family for study of family strengths and family stress; F-COPES developed by McCubbin, Olson, and Larsen at University of Wisconsin; and FACES-III developed by Olson, Portner and Lavee at University of Minnesota. Fifty volunteers participated, representing 33 highly educated, primarily caucasian, families. Seventy-eight per cent of the population were excited about moving to Orange County. Major problems experienced were the high cost of living, cost of housing, traffic, air pollution, and personal conflict with the California lifestyle and culture. Climate was listed more often than any other benefit. Level of happiness decreased the first three to nine months after the move, then gradually improved until by twelve months after the move, most individuals were as happy as they had been before migration. After the experiences of their move to Orange County, 70 per cent reported if they had opportunity to do it over they would make the same decision to move to Orange County again. Family systems that were balanced or mid-range tended to be more willing to make the decision to move to Orange County again while family systems that were extreme tended to say they would not move to Orange County again. Extreme family systems scored higher on F-COPES. Families with higher cohesive scores on FACES-III also tended to score higher on F-COPES. Information and suggestions from the study will be helpful for people considering migration to Orange County, to people who have recently moved to Orange County and to those who employ and/or provide supportive services for relocating families