1. Third Culture Kids (TCK’s) and
Cross Cultural Kids (CCK’s)
Social Emotional Practicum
2012

2. TCK’s Defined
 Spend developmental years outside the parents’
culture.
 Builds relationships to all of the cultures, full
ownership of none.
 The sense of belonging is in relationship to others of
similar background.

3. CCK Model (Cross Cultural Kid)
 Someone who is living and meaningfully interacts
with two or more cultural environments for a
significant period of time
 The CCK definition is not dependent on the
question of where CCK’s grow up, such as outside
the passport culture or overseas.
 CCK’s do not merely live side by side with those
from other cultures, but are interacting with more
than one culture in ways that have meaningful or
relational involvement.

4. The TCK or CCK Model
Third Culture or
Cross Culture
with Shared Host or
Home or First Commonalities Second
Culture
Culture

5. CCK Categories
 Traditional TCK’s  Domestic TCK’s
 Bi/Multicultural  International Adoptees
Children  Children of Minorities
 Bi/Multiracial Children  Children of Immigrants
 Children of  Children of Refugees
Borderlanders
 Educational CCK’s

6. Cultural Identity Model
in Relationship to Surrounding Culture
Foreigner Hidden Immigrant
Look different Look alike
Think different Think different
Adopted Mirror
Look different Look alike
Think alike Think alike

7. Who Am I? Finding a sense of personal
balance and identity
 Adults experience cross cultural transitions and high
mobility with an international move
 But YOU experience growing up cross culturally
 It is the interplay of these factors for you during your
youth that leads to the benefits, challenges and
personal characteristics of TCK’s

8. Achieving Cultural Balance and Personal
Identity
 Who we are and where we belong is a
developmental task for students
 We learn the basic rules and values by which our
particular culture operates
 As you grow, you challenge these rules
 Eventually you internalize the principles and
practices you have learned, by challenging and
finally accepting (?)—or adjusting within yourself
 This is achieving cultural balance and personal
identity

9. What about Cultural Balance for TCK’s
and CCK’s?
 Often feel out of balance
 Why? Because rapid cultural change has been
normal. You are one plane ride away from
exchanging complete sets of worldviews,
expectations of behavior, and even languages
 Before you know how to behave, you must figure out
where you are
 You are trying to find cultural balance in a world filled
with many cultures, many worldviews and you ‘catch
it’ from all of your environments

10. What are the main challenges of a TCK
upbringing for you?
 Finding a sense of personal identity
 Finding a sense of cultural identity
 Dealing with unresolved grief
 Turn to your neighbor and discuss the above
concepts. Be ready to share your thoughts with the
group.

11. TCK’s and CCK’s undergo Chronic Cycles
of Mobility
Much more often than the population at large
 Go through the transition cycle with greater frequency so there
are multiple and repetitive cycles of loss and grief
 Grief during a transition is not a negation of the
past—it is an affirmation
 Also TCK’s move often meaning changing cultures
as well as places
 Experience grief because of the very richness of
their lives

12. Reasons for Unresolved Grief
 Fear of denying the good
 Learning to live with the mystery of paradox
 Hidden Losses
 Loss of relationships, loss of role models, loss of status,
loss of their world, loss of lifestyle, loss of possessions
 Lack of permission to grieve
 Lack of time to process
 Lack of comfort

13. Part two
Let’s get personal

14. Benefits and Challenges of TCK’s/CCK’s
Benefits Challenges
 Expanded Worldview  Confused Loyalties
 Awareness of more than  Value dissonance
one way to look at the
same thing
 Painful Awareness of
 Three Dimensional View Reality
of the World
 Ignorance of the home
 Cross Cultural Richness culture or perhaps
questioning of home
culture

15. TCK Personal Characteristics
Benefits and Challenges
Benefits Challenges
 Cultural Adaptability  Lack of True Cultural
Balance
 Blending In  Defining the Differences
 Prejudice: Less  Prejudice: More
 The Importance of Now  The Delusion of Choice
 Planning at the last minute
to not risk disappointment
 Appreciative of Authority
 Mistrustful of Authority
 Real vs. Perceived
Arrogance—I’m different
from you

16. TCK Practical Skills
 Cross-Cultural Skills
 Observational Skills
 Social Skills
 Linguistic Skills

17. Rootlessness vs. Restlessness
 Dreaded questions of TCK’s
 Where are you from?
 Where is home?
 The Migratory Instinct
 Where I am, today, is temporary. But as soon as I get a
job or purchase a home, I’ll settle down.

18. Relational Patterns
 Large numbers of relationships
 Deep and valued relationships as TCK’s
 Home culture relationships ‘shallow’?
 Relationships levels we pass through
 Superficial level—small talk
 ‘Still safe’ level—we exchange facts with no personal risks
 Judgmental level—we risk comments about our opinions
 Emotional level—share how we feel about life,
ourselves—here we risk a piece of inner worlds, selves
 Disclosure level—reveal our private thoughts and
feelings, allow ourselves to be vulnerable, are truly honest

19. Why do TCK’s have deeper relationships?
 Practice
 Have started new relationships often
 Content
 Have a large store of knowledge, feeding many topics for
discussion
 Sense of urgency
 They perceive little time to develop a particular
relationship

20. Possible Effects of a Cycle of Multiple
Losses on Relationships
 Refusing to care
 Limits your vulnerability to impending grief
 Quick release
 Friends stop calling each other and don’t visit any longer
 Anger could be part of this
 Emotional Flattening
 Refusing to feel the pain; they say they don’t like messy
goodbyes

21. Normal Developmental Tasks
 Establishing a personal sense of identity
 Establishing and maintaining strong relationships
 Developing Competence in decision making
 Achieving independence
 Adulthood

22. Early Maturity of TCK’s In…
 Broad base of knowledge and awareness
 Relationship to adults
 Communication skills
 Early autonomy

23. Delayed Adolescence in TCK’s
 Cross cultural mobility in developmental years
 Can lead to restrictions of movement due to safety
 Extended compliance to cultural rules
 Lack of opportunities for meaningful choices
 Life is often unpredictable making it hard to make
decisions
 Family separations
 Operating between different systems-social and
educational

24. Delayed Adolescent Rebellion
 Extension of delayed adolescence
 End of the need for compliance
 Loneliness
 Need for a home base, vacation time is lonely
 Anger
 Manifestation of unresolved grief

25. Expressions of Unresolved Grief
 Denial
 Anger
 Bargaining
 Sadness/Depression
 Withdrawal
 Rebellion
 Vicarious grief
 Delayed grief