Hello Ellen,

I was wondering if you have seen this paper?

Dewaele, J. M., & Van Oudenhoven, J. P. (2009). The effect of multilingualism/multiculturalism on personality: no gain without pain for Third Culture Kids?. International Journal of Multilingualism, 6(4), 443-459.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228084871

This is a review of a book referenced by the above:

Pollock, D., & Van Reken, R. (2010). Third culture kids: Growing up among worlds. Nicholas Brealey Publishing.

http://www.icconnections.org/info/bookreviews/TCKs.pdf 

Very best wishes,

Mary

Article The effect of multilingualism/multiculturalism on personalit...

Thank you. Much appreciated. The paper is very helpful.

Dear Ellen:

In your question you ask for how the experience of 'third culture children' impact on their personality development and define third culture children as those children who are raised in a culture other than their parents for a significant part of their early development years.

As I see it, before asking this "how" question, you have to be sure that the cultural environmental has an impact on children's personality development. As we are ourselves and our circumstances, that is, our physical, social, and cultural milieu, it is true, almost by definition, that "Third Cultural Children's" personality development is  affected by the culture where they are raised for a significant part of their early development years. How could it be otherwise -- one may ask ? I think that you also take such an influence or impact for granted and what you want to know is the psychological processes that occur, in terms of personality development, when those children live and are raised for a significant part of their early development years in a culture other than that of their parents. Am I correct? I think this clarification is important because, as the philosopher of science John Laudan once remarked, science only progresses through a careful clarification of meanings. Note that to ask why children's personality develops in a certain culture is different from asking how it develops. If the former makes me think of what causes, conditions or brings about children's personality development in a given culture, the latter reminds me, for example, of what psychological processes are at issue when such development  occurs. That said, I think of your question as a "How" question, not a "Why question". 

Answers to your how question depend -- I think -- on the theoretical framework one adopts. For example, from a Piagetian perspective, it might be said that children raised in a culture other than that of their parents for a significant part of their early development years have to deal with several conflicts and disequilibria because they are subject, say, to two different cultural atmospheres, that of their parents, and that of the country where they are being raised. To solve these conflicts, those children have to be able to assimilate first the several facets of the, say, third culture, an then to actively accommodate to them. Thus, the experience of 'third culture children' impact on personality development implies a psychological process of successive assimilations and accommodations. 

Of course, a Skinnerian-oriented psychologist would appeal to other psychological processes, such as operant conditioning, reinforcement, punishment, and so forth to explain how the experience of 'third culture children' impact on their personality development.

I hope I have got your question and that  this helps.

Best regards, Orlando

Food for thought....Many thanks.