Facebook as a site of stress reduction and resilience amongst trailing wives living in Alaska

2017 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.This explanatory sequential mixed methodology (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011) study considers how Facebook use impacts sojourners' perceived stress and resilience. Forty-one current and retired sojourning "trailing wives"—women who move primarily for their husband's career—located in Anchorage, Alaska, participated in the Phase 1 survey. Phase 1 found support for the predicted negative relationship between perceived stress and Facebook social connectedness, but the predicted positive relationship between Facebook social connectedness and resilience was not significant. Seventeen Phase 2 participants participated in semi-structured interviews, which were then analyzed using the constant comparative method (Strauss & Corbin, 1990), to explore the relationship between Facebook use and resilience further. Interview participants identified Facebook information seeking and social networking activities as particularly helpful in their early sojourn adjustment. Some participants also reported using Facebook and other social media sites (e.g., Instagram) to grow from their sojourn experience by practicing four of the resilience communication processes identified by Buzzanell (2010): drawing upon communication networks, emphasizing identity anchors, fostering optimism, and reframing negative experiences. Implications for practitioners (e.g., sojourners, human resources and mental health professionals) and researchers (across international business and social science disciplines) are also discussed