John and Ruth Useem created the term Third Culture Kids (TCK) in the 1950s (Fail, Thompson, & Walker, 2004)Click and drag to move. The Useems met expatriates and their families while in India and discovered they had formed a lifestyle different from either their home or host culture (Pollock & Van Reken, 2009). To describe the world in which the expatriates lived, the Useems defined the home culture where they came from as the first culture. The host culture where they lived became known as the second culture. The shared lifestyle was the third culture.
Pollock and Van Reken expanded the concept of TCKs to reflect an increasingly mobile and cross-cultural world (Bonebright, 2010). They noticed the number of TCKs increased and felt the Useems’ …show more content…
One of the challenges faced by TCKs is reverse culture shock (Rockson, 2015). Reverse culture shock sets in when the TCK returns to the home culture to settle down and start a new life (Storti, 2003). TCKs begin to realize the changes they experienced while living overseas and how the changes set them apart from their peers. Another challenge TCKs face is unresolved grief as TCKs are not allowed time to grieve the loss as they may receive a message they are not supposed to express feelings of grief. They are also not given sufficient time to process their grief but instead told to move on (Pollock & Van Reken, 2009). TCKs repeatedly experience loss with each transition such as loss of the world that was known to them, the loss of relationships, the loss of role models, and the loss of system identity.The biggest challenge of TCKs is forming their sense of identity and a sense of belonging as they have had to move between cultures before completing the critical task of personal or cultural identity (Walters & Auton-Cuff, …show more content…
A sense of belonging affects who we are, and developed during the formative years along with a sense of identity. The sense of belonging and sense of identity are closely related as they both can elicit differing emotions and have different meanings for different people (Walters & Auton-Cuff, 2009). TCKs can either have a multiple sense of belonging or no sense of belonging (Fail et al., 2004).
TCKs experience difficulties with socialization and finding a sense of belonging in their passport culture (Bonebright, 2010). A TCK’s weak sense of belonging may be the result of not having satisfactory contact experience with their home culture or the host culture where they grew up (Choi & Luke, 2011). A feeling of disconnection is often stronger when the TCK returns to the passport culture because they don’t appear physically different from their peers (Bonebright,
Pollock and Van Reken expanded the concept of TCKs to reflect an increasingly mobile and cross-cultural world (Bonebright, 2010). They noticed the number of TCKs increased and felt the Useems’ …show more content…
One of the challenges faced by TCKs is reverse culture shock (Rockson, 2015). Reverse culture shock sets in when the TCK returns to the home culture to settle down and start a new life (Storti, 2003). TCKs begin to realize the changes they experienced while living overseas and how the changes set them apart from their peers. Another challenge TCKs face is unresolved grief as TCKs are not allowed time to grieve the loss as they may receive a message they are not supposed to express feelings of grief. They are also not given sufficient time to process their grief but instead told to move on (Pollock & Van Reken, 2009). TCKs repeatedly experience loss with each transition such as loss of the world that was known to them, the loss of relationships, the loss of role models, and the loss of system identity.The biggest challenge of TCKs is forming their sense of identity and a sense of belonging as they have had to move between cultures before completing the critical task of personal or cultural identity (Walters & Auton-Cuff, …show more content…
A sense of belonging affects who we are, and developed during the formative years along with a sense of identity. The sense of belonging and sense of identity are closely related as they both can elicit differing emotions and have different meanings for different people (Walters & Auton-Cuff, 2009). TCKs can either have a multiple sense of belonging or no sense of belonging (Fail et al., 2004).
TCKs experience difficulties with socialization and finding a sense of belonging in their passport culture (Bonebright, 2010). A TCK’s weak sense of belonging may be the result of not having satisfactory contact experience with their home culture or the host culture where they grew up (Choi & Luke, 2011). A feeling of disconnection is often stronger when the TCK returns to the passport culture because they don’t appear physically different from their peers (Bonebright,