Am I a third culture kid?
You're likely a third culture kid if you spent a significant part of your childhood living outside your parents' culture - for example because of a parent's job abroad - and now feel like you belong partly to several places and fully to none. Moving countries isn't the only route: growing up between two cultures at home and school shares a lot of the same experience.
The definition
The term grew out of the work of sociologists Ruth Hill Useem and John Useem, who in the 1950s and 60s described the shared "third culture" of people living between cultures. Pollock and Van Reken's widely used definition describes a TCK as someone who spent a significant part of their developmental years outside their parents' culture.
2-minute self-check
How TCK are you?
13 statements drawn from research on third culture kids. Get a score from 0 to 100.
Get my TCK score →Signs it might be you
"Where are you from?" needs a footnote. You feel at home everywhere and nowhere. You look like you belong in your passport country but don't get the references. You shift your accent or manners depending on who you're with. You get restless after a couple of years. You still miss places you left as a kid.
None of these alone makes someone a TCK - but if most of them land, the research on TCKs will probably describe you surprisingly well.
Read next
What the research says
The sociologists who coined the term "third culture" for the shared culture of people living between cultures.
Useem, J., Useem, R. & Donoghue, J. (1963). Men in the Middle of the Third Culture. Human Organization, 22(3), 169-179.The standard reference on TCKs. Defines a TCK as someone who spends a significant part of their developmental years outside their parents' culture, and describes the common profile: the hard "where are you from?" question, the 'cultural chameleon', the 'hidden immigrant' feeling in the passport country, restlessness, and particular relationship patterns.
Pollock, D. C., Van Reken, R. E. & Pollock, M. V. Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds (1999; 3rd ed. 2017). Nicholas Brealey.Life histories of former international school students, exploring how they experience belonging and identity - including the sense of belonging everywhere and nowhere.
Fail, H., Thompson, J. & Walker, G. (2004). Belonging, identity and Third Culture Kids. Journal of Research in International Education, 3(3), 319-338.How highly mobile children build a sense of 'home' - often around people, memories, and belongings rather than a single place.
Lijadi, A. A. & van Schalkwyk, G. J. (2017). Place identity construction of Third Culture Kids: Eliciting voices of children with high mobility lifestyle. Geoforum, 81, 120-128.
Frequently asked questions
Can you be a TCK if you only moved once?+
Yes. What matters is spending a significant part of your childhood outside your parents' culture, not the number of moves.
Are children of immigrants third culture kids?+
They're often described as cross-cultural kids - a broader group that includes TCKs. Many share the same experience of growing up between the culture at home and the one outside.