Third Culture Kids

Third Culture Kids – a term that is now starting to find its way to Sweden, but has been used around the world for several decades. The first to use the term was sociologist Ruth Hill Useem, who back in the 1950s explained that TCKs are “Children who accompany their parents to another culture.” The term TCKs spread not least through the book written by David C. Pollock and Ruth E. Van Reken in 1999 “Third Culture Kids – Growing Up Among Worlds”, which was published in a new edition in 2017. Their explanation of Third Culture Kids (TCK) is: “A TCK is a person who has spent a substantial part of their childhood in a culture other than that of their parents. A TCK is part of several cultures, but does not belong entirely to any one culture. Although there are elements of several cultures in the person’s life experience, the person’s belonging is primarily in relationships with others of similar background.”

I myself am a TCK who grew up in Congo, and I am the mother of five TCKs who grew up in Thailand. I have been offering psychotherapy for many years to adults who grew up as TCKs and to families who are about to move, live in another culture, or have just moved.

I have written a book about Third Culture Kids that is distributed worldwide and translated into several languages.