Educational and career choices of Adult Third Culture Kids : a comparison study featuring bicultural and multicultural ATCKs

Abstract

The identity of Third Culture Kids, individuals who have spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside their parents’ culture, is nothing new in today's society. In fact, the number of Third Culture Kids is becoming more prevalent as the world moves to a global community where families travel and live all around the world. This thesis includes a comparative study between Ann Cotrell and Ruth Useem’s previous research from 20 years ago, focused on Third Culture Kids born to American parents, and a new recent survey that features the identity of Adult Third Culture Kids born from Bicultural and Multicultural parents concerning their educational and career choices. Moreover, it will also analyze whether these decisions have changed over the past 20 years, and try to determine if patterns have changed.

The importance of the research proposed in this paper can be seen in how this global population is interacting with society as adults. Has the overseas experience been positive? Was it a difficult transition back to home country? How did it affect education and career choices? Experts themselves underline the limited amount of research and the need for more in-depth research across different platforms. The survey will focus on aspects such as current job, social life, economic status, and cultural identification; and whether they feel their experience had a positive or negative impact on their adult lives.

It can be extrapolated from this study that Adult Third Culture Kids’ education and career choices are heavily influenced by their time growing up abroad and can be seen to have an international or service aspect. Furthermore, Third Culture Kids’ identity and schooling play a stronger role in their educational and career choices than their Bi/Multicultural background. This may be due basically to the shared traits of identity, educational, and career choices that TCKs share while growing up abroad than having parents from different nationalities and cultures.