A third-culture kid (TCK / 3CK) or trans-culture kid is "someone who, as a child, has spent a significant period of time in one or more culture(s) other than his or her own, thus integrating elements of those cultures and their own birth culture, into a third culture."[1] TCKs tend to have more in common with one another, regardless of nationality, than they do with non-TCKs from their own country.[2][3]
Before World War II, 66% of TCKs came from missionary families, and 16% came from business families. After World War II, with the increase of international business and the rise of two international superpowers A superpower is a state with a dominant position in the international system which has the ability to influence events and its own interests and project power on a worldwide scale to protect those interests. A superpower is traditionally considered to be one step higher than a great power, the composition of international families changed. Sponsors are generally broken down into five categories: missionary (17%), business (16%), government (23%), military (30%), and "other" (14%).[4]
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Origins and research
Sociologist Ruth Hill Useem Ruth Hill Useem was an American sociologist who introduced the concept of Third Culture Kid (TCK) to describe children who spent part of their developmental years in a foreign culture due to their parents' working abroad. Her work was the first to identify common themes among various TCK's that affect them throughout their lives. After her coined the term third-culture kid after spending her second year-long visit to India with her three children, Michael, Howard, and Bert)[5] in the early 1950s. Initially, third culture alluded to the process of learning how to relate to another culture; in time, the meaning of the term changed, and children who accompany their parents into a different culture became known as third-culture kids.[6][7] Useem used the term "Third Culture Kids" because TCKs integrate aspects of their birth culture (the first culture) and the new culture (the second culture), creating a unique "third culture".[7]
Sociologist David Pollock described a TCK as "a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside the parents' culture. The TCK builds relationships to all of the cultures, while not having full ownership of any. Although elements from each culture are assimilated into the TCK's life experience, the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of a similar background."[8] In order to be a TCK, one must accompany one's parents into a foreign culture. Entering another culture without one's parents, such as on a foreign exchange program, explicitly does not make one a TCK.[9]
Research into Third Culture Kids has come from two fronts. First, most of the research into TCKs has been conducted by adult TCKs attempting to validate their own experiences. This research has been conducted largely at the Michigan State University, where Dr. Useem taught for over 30 years.[10] Second, the U.S armed forces has sponsored significant research into the U.S. military brat A "military brat" is a term for a person whose parent or parents have served full-time in the armed forces during the person's childhood. In conventional usage, the word "brat" used alone may be pejorative; in modern, especially American, usage, however, "military brat" is often not considered to be a derogatory term ( experience.[10] Most TCK research on adults is limited to those people whose time in a different culture occurred during the school age years.
Research into TCKs has either studied students currently living in a foreign culture or years later as adults. Since the only way to identify somebody who grew up in a foreign culture is through self-identification, scientific sampling methods Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning. A scientific method consists of on adults may contain bias In scientific research, ascertainment bias occurs when false results are produced by non-random sampling and conclusions made about an entire group are based on a distorted or nontypical sample. If this is not accounted for, results can be erroneously attributed to the phenomenon under study rather than to the method of sampling. It is one of the due to the difficulty in conducting epidemiological Epidemiology is the study of factors affecting the health and illness of populations, and serves as the foundation and logic of interventions made in the interest of public health and preventative medicine. It is considered a cornerstone methodology of public health research, and is highly regarded in evidence-based medicine for identifying risk studies across broad-based population samples Sampling is that part of statistical practice concerned with the selection of an unbiased or random subset of individual observations within a population of individuals intended to yield some knowledge about the population of concern, especially for the purposes of making predictions based on statistical inference. Sampling is an important aspect.
While much of the research into TCKs has shown consistent results across geographical boundaries, some international sociologists are critical of the research that "expects there to be one unified 'true' culture that is shared by all who have experiences of growing up overseas."[3]
Families
TCKs often come from highly successful, intact, educated families.[11] When a group (whether it is the military, a business, church, etc.) decides to send somebody to a foreign country, they are making a significant investment. They want to send people who will represent the group the best and provide the most value for the investment. TCKs will thus have a higher probability of coming from a family where at least one parent earned a college degree and often an advanced degree. "Almost all" TCK families are deployed to foreign countries as a result of the father's profession, and very few families live in another country primarily due to the mother's occupation.[12]
TCKs also tend to come from families that are closer than non-TCK families. They will also have a smaller likelihood of having divorced parents (divorced parents are unlikely to allow their ex to take their child to another country.) "Because the nuclear family is the only consistent social unit through all moves, family members are psychologically thrown back on one another in a way that is not typical in geographically stable families."[13] It has been observed that TCKs may be more prone to abuse as the family can become too tight knit. "The strength of [the] family bond works to the benefit of children when parent-child communication is good and the overall family dynamic is healthy. It can be devastating when it is not.... Physical, sexual and emotional abuse ... may go unnoticed or unacknowledged by others for a variety of reasons, such as misguided notions about 'respecting privacy,' or fear of repatriation or family disgrace with colleagues."[13]
Sponsorship
TCK's exposure to foreign countries depends largely on parent's sponsoring organization. The sponsor affects many variables such as: how long a family is in a foreign culture, the family's interaction with the host country nationals, how enmeshed the family becomes with local practices, and the family's interaction with people from the home country.
Military
Military brats, primarily from the United States, are the most mobile of TCKs but generally spend only a few years abroad, and sometimes none at all. Approximately 41% of military brats spend less than 5 years in foreign countries. They are the least likely TCKs to develop connections with the locals.[14] Because military bases aim for self-sufficiency, military brats tend to be exposed the least to the local culture.[15] Also, because of the self-sufficiency of military bases and the distinctiveness of military culture, even those military brats who never lived abroad can be isolated to some degree from the civilian culture of their "home" country.
While parents of military brats had the lowest level of education of the five categories, approximately 36% of USA military brat TCK families have at least one parent with an advanced degree. This is significantly higher than the general population.[4]
Non-military government
Nonmilitary government TCKs are the most likely to have extended experiences in foreign countries for extended periods. 44% have lived in at least four countries. 44% will also have spent at least 10 years outside of their passport country. Their involvement with locals and others from their passport country depends on the role of the parent. Some may grow up moving from country to country in the diplomatic corps (see Foreign Service Brat A Foreign Service brat is a person whose parent(s) served full-time in the United States Foreign Service during the person's childhood. The term brat is often thought of as derogatory; however, in a foreign service context the term has a neutral feel and is sometimes taken as a sign of pride. A Foreign Service brat may spend the majority of their) while others may live their lives near military bases.[14]
Religious
Missionary Kids Missionary Kids are the children of missionary parents, and thus most were born and/or raised abroad (that is, on the "mission-field"). They can be a subset of Third Culture Kids (TCKs), but not always (MKs) typically spend the most time overseas in one country. 85% of MKs spend more than 10 years in foreign countries and 72% lived in only one foreign country. MKs generally have the most interaction with the local populace and the least interaction with people from their passport country. They are the most likely to integrate themselves into the local culture.[14] 83% of missionary kids have at least one parent with an advanced degree.[4]
Business
Business families also spend a great deal of time in foreign countries. 63% of business TCK's have lived in foreign countries at least 10 years but are more likely than MKs to live in multiple countries. Business TCKs will have a fairly high interaction with their host nationals and with others from their passport country.[14] Many of these "business" families are from oil companies, particularly in the Arab world and in Latin America.
Other
The "Other" category includes anybody who does not fit one the above descriptions. They include children of workers at intergovernmental agencies and international non-governmental organizations, educators (e.g., Steve Kerr Stephen Douglas "Steve" Kerr is a retired American professional basketball player. He is noted as being the all time leader in three point field goal percentage in NBA history. Kerr is a five-time NBA champion, and the only NBA player to win four consecutive championships in the last 30 years), media, professional athletes (e.g., Kobe Bryant Kobe Bean Bryant ) is an American professional basketball player who plays shooting guard in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Los Angeles Lakers. Bryant enjoyed a successful high school basketball career and decided to declare his eligibility for the NBA Draft upon graduation. He was selected with the 13th overall pick in the 1996 and Wally Szczerbiak Walter Robert "Wally" Szczerbiak is an American professional basketball player. He is currently an unrestricted free agent), etc.[16] This group typically has spent the least amount of time in foreign countries (42% are abroad for 1–2 years and 70% for less than 5). Again their involvement with local people and culture can vary greatly.[14] The children of Other can also mean living in an area with a certain ethnic majority other than your own, i.e. an Americanized Arab Muslim living in Chinatown.
The parents of "Others" are the most likely of TCKs to have parents with an advanced degree (89% of families have an advanced degree.)[17]
Non-American third culture kids
Most international TCKs are expected to speak English and some countries require their expatriate families to be proficient with the English language.[18] This is largely because most international schools use the English language as the norm.[18]
Families tend to seek out schools whose principal languages they share, and ideally one which mirrors their own educational system. Many countries have American schools, French schools, British schools, and 'International Schools' which often follow one of the three International Baccalaureate The International Baccalaureate , formerly the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO), is an international educational foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. Founded in 1968 in Geneva, IB offers three educational programmes for children ages 3–19. The organization's name and logo were changed in 2007 to reflect a new image and programs. These will be populated by expatriates' An expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing or legal residence. The word comes from the Latin term expatriātus from ex ("out of") and patriā the ablative case of patria ("country, fatherland") children and some children of the local upper middle class. They do this in an effort to maintain linguistic stability and to ensure that their children do not fall behind due to linguistic problems. Where their own language is not available, families will often choose English-speaking schools for their children. They do this because of the linguistic and cultural opportunities being immersed in English might provide their children when they are adults, and because their children are more likely to have prior exposure to English than to other international languages. This poses the potential for non-English speaking TCKs to have a significantly different experience than U.S. TCKs.[19] Research on TCKs from Japan, Denmark, Italy, Germany, the United States and Africa has shown that TCKs from different countries share more in common with other TCKs than they do with their own peer group from their passport country.[3]
A few sociologists studying TCKs, however, argue that the commonality found in international TCKs is not the result of true commonality, but rather the researcher's bias projecting expectations upon the studied subculture. They believe that some of the superficial attributes may mirror each other, but that TCKs from different countries are really different from one another.[3] The exteriors may be the same, but that the understanding of the world around them differs.[15] In Japan, the use of the term "third culture kids" to refer to children returned from living overseas is not universally accepted; they are typically referred to both in Japanese and in English as kikokushijo, literally "returnee children", a term which has different implications. Public awareness of kikokushijo is much more widespread in Japan than awareness of TCKs in the United States, and government reports as early as 1966 recognised the need for the school system to adapt to them. However, views of kikokushijo have not always been positive; in the 1970s, especially, they were characterised in media reports and even by their own parents as "educational orphans" in need of "rescue" to reduce their foreignness and successfully reintegrate them into Japanese society.[20]
Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:54:00 GMT+00:00
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