What is a TCK?

"A Third Culture Kid (TCK) is a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside the parents' culture(s). Although elements from each culture are assimilated into the TCK's life experience, the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of similar background."
Third Culture Communities

As you read through the following description, please put an "x" in the boxes that apply.

Common characteristics of Third Culture experience (for adults as well as kids)
 Cross-cultural lifestyle
 High mobility
Expected repatriation
Often a "system identity" with sponsoring organization/business (e.g. military, missionary, corporate, foreign service)


Common personal characteristics of TCKs (children who grow up in t his world)
 Large world view
 Language acquisition
 Can be cultural bridges
 Rootlessness - "Home" is everywhere and nowhere
 Restlessness
 Sense of belonging is often in relationship to others of simlar background rather than shared race or ethnicity alone

Major challenges:
  Cultural marginality: an experience in which people don't tend to fit perfectly into any one of the cultures to which they have been exposed or with which they have itneracted, but may fit comfortably on the edge, in the margines of each.

  Unresolved grief: Many of their losses are not visible or recognized by others. With no language or understanding to process these losses, many TCKs never learned how to deal with them as they happened and the grief comes out in other ways ( e.g. denial, anger, depression, extreme busyness, etc.).






Above info from: http://www.crossculturalkid.org/

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