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A representation of the globalization that comes from being a TCI

Third culture kid (TCK, 3CK) is a term used to refer to children who were raised in a culture outside of their parents’ culture for a significant part of their development years. The definition is not constrained to describing only children, but can also be used to describe adults who have had this experience of being a TCK. The experience of being a TCK is unique in that these individuals are moving between cultures before they have had the opportunity to fully develop their personal and cultural identity. The first culture of children refers to the culture of the country from which the parents originated, the second culture refers to the culture in which the family currently resides, and the third culture refers to the amalgamation of these two cultures. The third culture is further reinforced with the interaction of the third culture individual with the expatriate community that currently resides in the host country.

Today, the population of third culture kids, also referred to as "third culture individuals" (TCIs), is increasing with globalization, more opportunities for jobs and work oversees, with international education being more accessible, and various other factors.. Some well-known TCIs include the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, and Abby Huntsman, daughter of former U.S. Ambassador to China and former Governor of Utah Jon Huntsman, Jr., who lived in Beijing and various other Asian cities due to her father's career path. Currently, there are as many bilingual children in the world as there are monolingual children. TCIs are often exposed to a second (or third, fourth, etc.) language while living in their host culture. This means that TCIs are often bilingual, and sometimes even multilingual.

Origins

A banner from the National Multicultural Festival in Canberra, Australia

The term "third culture kid" was first coined by researchers John and Ruth Useem in the 1950’s, who used it to describe the children of American citizens working and living abroad. Dr. Ruth Useem first used the term after her second year-long visit to India with her fellow sociologist/anthropologist husband and three children. At the time, it applied to the children of Foreign Service Officers, missionaries, businessmen, educators, media representatives, and aid workers but has since expanded to be applicable to any individual of any country who has undergone these same experiences. The term is not limited to Americans but rather can be used to describe any individuals who have had significant living experience in a culture besides their own. TCKs are sometimes referred to as "third culture individuals" as being a third culture kid does not necessarily constitute being a child.

Useem et. al. (1963) depicted individuals who have undergone such an experience as having distinct standards of interpersonal behavior, work-related norms, codes of lifestyle and perspectives, and communication. This creates a new cultural group that does not fall into their home or host culture, but rather share a culture with all other TCIs. In 1993 she wrote:

In summarizing that which we had observed in our cross-cultural encounters, we began to use the term "third culture" as a generic term to cover the styles of life created, shared, and learned by persons who are in the process of relating their societies, or sections thereof, to each other. The term "Third Culture Kids" or TCKs was coined to refer to the children who accompany their parents into another society.

— Ruth Hill Useem, TCK World: The Official Home of Third Culture Kids

Kay Branaman Eakin, the former Education Counselor for the United States Department of State, worked with American families returning to the United States after having lived abroad. She described a TCI as "someone who, as a child, has spent a significant period of time in one or more culture(s) other than [his/her] own, thus integrating elements of those cultures and their own birth culture, into a third culture." In 1984, author and researcher Norma McCaig used the term "global nomad," which is synonymous with TCI, but was used in order to take into account that the child's situation was as a result of a parent or parents' career or life choice(s).

General Characteristics

Third culture individuals can also be referred to as cultural hybrids, cultural chameleons, and global nomads. TCIs are particularly adept at building relationships with other cultures while not possessing a cultural identity of their own. It has been discussed in the past that the characteristics that have been put forth by prominent researchers in the TCI field have only been discussed when referring to American children who have lived abroad. However, there has been further research done on TCIs that shows that the same characteristics described by Pollock and Useem in the most prominent TCI literature also apply to individuals from other nations who have also lived abroad for extended periods of time during their developmental years. There are benefits and challenges to being a TCI according to various researchers on the subject.

Benefits

• Expanded worldview: TCIs have an understanding that there is more than one way to look at situations that they are exposed to or experience. This can also be a challenge however, when third culture individuals return to a culture that is homogenous in their belief system, as an expanded worldview is perceived as offensive or useless.
• Third-dimensional view of the world: With an increased amount of hands-on experiences in multiple cultures, there is a difference in the way that the world is perceived. For example, there has been an increase in cross-cultural authors, such as Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner, who have received awards for their works that are written from a multicultural perspective. These authors are able to provide vivid descriptions about the cultures they have directly experienced and thus their work appears to be "three-dimensional."
• Interpersonal sensitivity: Increase exposure to a variety of perceptions and lifestyles allow TCIs to monitor their emotions, and register societal norms and cues more adeptly so as to produce higher sensitivity to other cultures and ways of life.
• Cross-cultural enrichment: Enjoying of and seeking to learn about the complexities and idiosyncrasies of other cultures.

Challenges

• Confused loyalties: Third culture kids can experience confusion with politics, patriotism, and values. This is especially the case when moving from collectivist to individualist cultures, or vice versa, as the values within each culture is different from the other.
• Painful awareness of reality: difficulty adjusting to cultures where the only culture that is discussed or focused on is itself.
• Ignorance of home culture: TCIs are often lacking in knowledge about their home nation, culture, town, and/or family. With current technology leading to the globalization of information, this is becoming increasingly less of a challenge provided the TCIs use modern technology in their host cultures to connect to their home culture. Understanding a culture’s sense of humor, however, is a commonly cited difficulty with the transition back to a home culture. There are also general societal norms and practices that will not be known when a TCI is first re-introduced to his/her home culture but those are eventually learned.
• Difficulties with adjusting to adult life: the mixture of influences from the various cultures that the individual has lived can create challenges in developing an identity as well as with a sense of belonging. Feelings of rootlessness and restlessness can make the transition to adulthood a challenging period for TCIs.

Psychological Impact

Identity

One of the challenges of being a third culture individual is developing a sense of belonging, commitment, and attachment to a culture. These factors play a strong role in one's self-esteem and identity, and are especially apparent as present or not present among TCIs. There are psychological benefits to being a bi-culturally competent individual, meaning that adjustment to the host culture and repatriation do not pose a difficulty for the individual. Individuals who do not experience this same smooth transition into the new culture are referred to as "culturally rootless" and "cultural homelessness." Culturally homeless (CH) individuals often experience confusion over their identity and especially because the TCI is frequently abroad during the adolescent development years when identity is most solidified psychologically.

There are four possible identities that can be internalized by TCIs according to some researchers.

1. Subtractive identity shift: when individuals are not able to have a concrete identity and therefore self-esteem and perception of self-concept become threatened and are more likely to be negative upon the individual's return home.
2. Additive identity shift: this type of shift occurs when an individual feels at ease adapting to the host culture and that the home and host cultures are more similar and therefore transition between the two is not challenging.
3. Affirmative culturally identity shift: in this shift an individual maintains his/her home culture identity and therefore does not adapt substantially into the host culture. This means that repatriation into the home culture is relatively seamless and the home identity allows for re-integration into the home culture's society.
4. Intercultural identity shift: while maintaining a strong self-concept, an individual in this shift is able to adapt to their new environment. Upon returning to the home country, the individual is able to reintegrate into their society as well as be open to new experiences. These individuals are able to maintain and incorporate multiple cultural viewpoints in their daily lives after having returned to the home culture.

When individuals who have spent a significant amount of their developmental years in a host culture and have not been able to adapt, develop an identity, and do not feel as though they belong, they are considered "culturally homeless". Cultural homelessness has been found to have both advantages and disadvantages. Some advantages include CH individuals recognize and respect the cultural differences within cultures, are often multilingual, and report themselves as cross-culturally competent. The disadvantages are a lack of a sense of belonging to any one culture or group, feeling alone in one's differences, and experiencing disorientation from frequent switching of cultures, norms, and homes. The disadvantages have been reported in surveys of TCIs from many different cultures as having left individuals feeling marginalized and as part of outgroups for the majority of their life because they are unable to identify with a specific group.

Cultural homelessness has been found at times to be associated with low self-esteem, perceiving less control over one's own life, and an unsatisfactory level of experience with belonging and attachment. The latter, belongingness and attachment, are both important for development and for feeling mentally healthy. Research has shown that some of the ways that the negative effects of cultural homelessness can be buffered is when an individual has adopted a cross-cultural identity (CCI). An individual is best able to adopt a CCI when the individual is made aware of the social category they belong to given his/her experience abroad, feels as though he/she belong to this category , and possesses a strong social network of friends and family that have a similar experience as the individual. The first factor is important for buffering the negative effects because it allows for the individual to understand that his/her cross-cultural experience is shared by others and therefore is not something that is unique to just them. This experience becomes more normalized and it allows for connection with others to create an even more defined social category. The second allows for attachment and commitment to be formed to this category and and self-labeling occurs. The last factor fulfills what are commonly considered as some of humanity's basic needs, as can be seen in Maslow's hierarchy of needs. This emotional attachment and belongingness have been found to be key components to the psychological well-being of TCIs and have been linked to higher for self-esteem among the TCI population.

Authoritarianism

TCIs have the unique experience of being exposed to and living in cultures different from their home culture for extended periods of time. This has been found to have an impact on their level of authoritarianism, both positively and negatively depending on the circumstance of the TCI. Authoritarianism measurements have been used by researchers on individuals and high scores on the right-wing authoritarian scale (RWA) have been found to possess the following three personality characteristics: a tendency to submit themselves to authority figures, a willingness to commit an act of aggression for the sake of this authority or authorities, and possessing significant concern with acting according to the rules and norms of their group. Scoring high on the RWA has been correlated with prejudice, discrimination, lack of openness and tolerance, lack of political knowledge or interest in international affairs, and feeling superior to those not belonging to the individual's group. Levels of authoritarianism differ in TCIs depending on number of assignments and of times repatriation occurred. Individuals who had positive experiences abroad, did not have more than a few different assignments, and did not have to frequently re-establish themselves and their entire social network in those new locations were found to have lower scores on the RWA than the general population. These individuals demonstrated an ease with entering new environments and circumstances. Individuals who had negative experiences while living abroad, had to move frequently, and had to rebuild their lives repeatedly were found to score higher on the RWA and become more attached to their home culture. This individual does not leave the experience of living abroad having created and experienced a third culture because of his/her rejecting the new environment.

Research

Though research initially largely focused on children in missionary families or children of diplomats, it has since expanded to other populations, including non-U.S. citizens. The researchers who pioneered the TCI research, such as Dr. Ruth Useem, were not expecting to find as many participants as they did. Useem and Cottrell, for example, were seeking at least 100 participants to respond to a survey that they believed to be "unconsciously long" but instead had 680 participants (ranging in age from 25-84 years) respond to the questionnaire. Instances like this one indicate to researchers the potential in exploring a subject matter that is still open to much research.

Increased Tolerance

From the research that has been conducted on TCIs, it has been found that subjects are generally more tolerant of different cultures and of people of different backgrounds than subjects from the same home country who are not TCIs. In addition, TCIs generally feel that they are better able to adapt to new cultures and understand how to behave appropriately in these new environments. Researcher and teacher Wenda Sheard surveyed some of her multi-cultural students, most of whom were either fluent in two or more languages, and found that many felt that they had an increased tolerance of other cultures. However, as one student explained, part of this tolerance was out of necessity for maintaining a healthy social life in one's new environment and culture.

In a study by Dewaele and van Oudenhoven (2009), it was found that TCIs scored higher on the open-mindedness scale on the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ). According to the study, "this dimension [of the test] evaluates for open and unprejudiced attitudes toward out-group members, as well as diverse cultural norms and values."

Intellectual Impact

Though the intellectual impact of being a TCI has not yet been widely explored, there has been such research in the area. One particular study by Lee and Bain (2007) that was found to have significant findings was conducted on young native Koreans who had recently moved to the United States and were attending school in America. The researchers were looking to see how these students would respond to explicit instruction aimed to work with their originality and fluency and that is specific to TCIs. This was measured through the level of creativity demonstrated in assigned tasks given to the students. TCIs were found to be able to demonstrate significantly higher levels of creativity and originality for problem solving than TCIs not given this same explicit instruction. This study has implications for the ways that TCIs can be instructed differently than the traditional curriculum to enhance their creativity and problem solving abilities because of their third culture experience.

Intellectual impact is also possible through differences in choosing to continue studies in higher education after high school. In 2001, it was found by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that 61.7 percent of 2001 high school graduates were enrolled in college. That same year, it was found that 95 percent of the TCI population were either enrolled or had some college education. Twenty-nine percent of this population had received an advanced degree, which is also higher than the percentage of the general population. However, it has been found that TCIs also have more "untraditional" educational paths in that a significant portion of TCIs choose to attend multiple colleges or take time off before or during college to travel or explore other opportunities.

Gender Differences

Much of the literature and research surrounding TCIs has found that these individuals are more open to learning new languages, demonstrate more flexibility when interacting with a novel culture than their monoculture peers, and a greater interest in continuing a global nomad lifestyle, which includes an interest in international careers. It has been found that women are more inclined to seek out interpersonal relationships while men are more task-oriented in their relationships and choices. Such findings were used in the hypothesis of a study conducted by Gerner & Perry (2000) that predicted that gender differences would also be found in the cultural acceptance and experiences of TCIs. In this study that looked at over 1000 adolescents with multi-cultural experience and those with none (the control), it was found that females were found to be generally more accepting of other cultures and less prone to issuing stereotypes. American males who had experience living abroad for a substantial amount of their developmental years, however, were found to have significantly higher cultural acceptance and openness to travel and to learning new languages.

The Gerner & Perry (2000) study also found gender differences between the males and females differed depending on the countries that had been lived in by the TCIs. The participants who had spent a significant amount of time living in Thailand did not show many gender differences in terms of cultural acceptance, international career interest, and openness to communicating and/or learning a new language. However, female participants who had lived in Egypt and females living in the U.S. were rated to be more open to other cultures, languages, international careers, and rated a myriad of given nationalities more favorably. Females who have had experience living abroad showed differences in their interest in international careers when compared to their female counterparts living in the United States. The females with experience abroad were demonstrated more interest in international careers, suggesting that this interest was in part spurred on by their international experiences.

Both non-U.S. citizen females and U.S. citizen females were found to have more positive ratings of cultural acceptance, acquisition or exposure to a new language, travel, and interest in going into an international career in the future and were less prone to stereotypes.

Adoption of Language

Will include information from original article once edited and strengthened with research.

Career Decisions

Discussing what kind of job preferences TCIs tend to have compared to their monocultural peers. Tables from the original article will be included in this section.

Impact On The Workforce

Third culture individuals, with their international experience, generally continue to value the international aspect of their lives. In a survey given to TCIs in 2001, there was a strong interest among TCI participants to continue to travel as they move into adulthood and their future careers, and many continued to maintain their internationally-acquired languages. It was also found in these surveys that approximately half of the participants continue to travel at least once a year and that just a little under 15 percent travel for business. TCIs have also been found to report selecting to study majors while in college that could have the options of having international careers. Some of these fields of study include business, nursing, and teaching English as a foreign language.