trailing spouse n. a husband or wife who follows a marriage partner who takes a new job in different city. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
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DO you think that finding 2 citations from the same paper in the 80’s (same author??) and 1 from current qualifies?
Yes. There are hundreds more to choose from in other papers and books, but as they add nothing new to the understanding of the term, it’s not necessary to include them here. I would have used just one citation from the Wall Street Journal, but I already had the second-oldest one when I found the oldest one, so I kept them both.
I added another citation to buck it up.
“Trailing spouse” is a very common term in the U.S. Foreign Service community.
See http://www.aafsw.org/articles/working/porter.htm.