TCKWorld: The Official Home of Third Culture Kids (TCKs)

What is a Third Culture Kid?

“A third culture kid is a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside their parents’ culture. The third culture kid builds relationships to all the cultures, while not having full ownership in any. Although elements from each culture are assimilated into the third culture kid’s life experience, the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of the same background, other TCKs.”... (more)

TCK World proudly presents:
Dr. Ruth Hill Useem -- the sociologist/anthopologist who first coined the term "Third Culture Kid" ("TCK")

Dr. Ruth Hill Useem was born on May 31, 1915 in Hamilton, Ohio. She received her BA in Sociology, Geology and English from Miami University in 1936 and her Ph.D. in Sociology, Anthropology, Social Psychology, and Psychology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1947. She married Dr. John Useem in June of 1940; they have three grown TCK sons and seven grandchildren.

Dr. Useem first lived outside the U.S. in 1952-53 while conducting research with John Useem in India on persons who had received a higher education in a Western country (a project sponsored by The Edward W. Hazen Foundation). The Useems returned to India a second time in 1958, again sponsored by The Hazen Foundation, to study overseas Americans in India; they took their boys with them to live abroad on both visits. It was these experiences which led to John and Ruth Useem’s coining of the term "Third Culture" and, by extrapolation, "Third Culture Kids." Dr. Ruth Hill Useem began publishing on Third Culture Kids in the 1960s. She is widely regarded as the founder of TCK research.

In the years 1952-1985, while supported by the Institute of International Studies in Education and the Center for International Studies and Programs of Michigan State University, Dr. Useem made field observations on expatriate communities, overseas schools, and third culture children in: EAST ASIA (South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong); SOUTHEAST ASIA (Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia); SOUTH ASIA (India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan); MIDDLE EAST (Afghanistan, Iran, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon); AFRICA (Egypt, Morocco, Canary Islands, South Africa, Swaziland, Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Senegal, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Togo); EUROPE (Germany, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Austria); UNITED STATES (Washington, D.C., New York, East Lansing, Michigan). In all, Dr. Useem traveled to 76 countries to complete her field research on Third Culture Kids.

With respect to the education of Third Culture Children, Dr. Useem acted as a consultant, keynote speaker, and workshop presenter at schools and regional organizations assisted by the Office of Overseas Schools of the U.S. Department of State. She has acted as a consultant to, and given special presentations to, personnel and students of U.S. Department of Defense Dependents’ Schools as well as the boards and administrators of Protestant- and Catholic-related overseas schools, and schools provided by multinational corporations for the children of their employees. Dr. Useem worked directly with students, parents and teachers at these schools.

Between the years 1952 and 1985, Dr. Useem also taught at the university level in the U.S. The central emphasis in her teaching has been combining sociological, cultural anthropological and social psychological perspectives for understanding individuals in their social/cultural/economic settings, particularly when those settings are undergoing rapid change and conflict. She taught courses on the education of TCKs both in the U.S. and abroad. During her tenure as an educator, Dr. Useem directed or made substantive contributions to more than thirty doctoral dissertations. Many of these consisted of ground-breaking work in the field of TCK research.

Dr. Useem became Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Education at Michigan State University in 1985, and continued her work on Third Culture Kids. In particular, she has studied the effects of how a Third Culture childhood impacts the individual once they reach adulthood. Her most recent large project (begun in 1991) has been conducted with her husband and two additional researchers, Dr. Ann Baker Cottrell of San Diego State University and Dr. Kathleen Ann Finn Jordan, a guidance counselor of overseas students. This project includes the analysis of nearly 700 twenty-four page self-administered questionnaires. Respondents ranged in age from 25 to 90 and included men and women from each of the predominant sponsors and a majority of the countries on the planet (Read the five articles as they were first published in NewsLinks: The Newspaper of International Schools Services.).

Dr. Useem died in September 10th 2003.

The following links will provide additional information on the Student Dissertations she has directed or to which she has made substantive contributions, the Empirical Research she has conducted, the Professional Societies to which she has belonged, the Consulting and Professional Services she has provided, and the Honors she has received.

Initially published in NewsLinks -- the newspaper of International Schools Services these reports were derived from a study of Adult Third Culture Kids (ATCKs) undertaken by three sociologists / anthropologists: Dr. Ann Baker Cottrell of San Diego State University and Drs. John Useem and Ruth Hill Useem, emeritus professors of Michigan State University; and by a counseling/guidance expert, Dr. Kathleen A. Finn Jordan, currently a Consulting Educational Counselor in Washington, D.C. They are provided here by permission of the authors. They have since been combined and published in Strangers at Home: Essays on the Effects of Living Overseas and Coming "Home" to a Strange Land, by Carolyn D. Smith, Aletheia Publications.

Article 1: Third Culture Kids: Focus of Major Study -- TCK "mother" pens history of field

Article 2: TCKs Four Times More Likely to Earn Bachelor’s Degrees

Article 3: TCKs Experience Prolonged Adolescence

Article 4: ATCKs have problems relating to their own ethnic groups

Article 5: ATCKs maintain global dimensions throughout their lives

Comments (392)

Logging you in...

Dashboard | Edit profile | Logout

Logged in as

+10 Vote up Vote down

Lisa · 777 weeks ago

Where can I find the thesis of Ruth Hill Useem that focus on grown up TCK?

+8 Vote up Vote down

Vibration Analysis · 480 weeks ago

its just feels so great to know that what am going through right now, returning back to my passport country for the purpose of higher education on my own, these feelings of frustration, loneliness, and not being able to connect back to the culture here and my peer friends who were here all their life. Being in Oman from birth since i was 16, am unable to shake off this feeling of 'not belonging' here. on the outside i pretend that this is my home, but in my heart i know am lying because there is no better joy than returning back to Oman and seeing my famliy and friends. it sometimes suck that even the only person am really close to my boyfriend who is a non- TCK fails to understand all this.

2 replies · active 310 weeks ago

+7 Vote up Vote down

Frances · 641 weeks ago

I am thrilled to find this site. I have found myself "not fitting in" since my return to the U.S.A, In the last 14 or so years, I called myself a transatlantic baby because I felt I never have, or probably never will feel at home in my birth country the U.S. I, lived overeseas from the ages of 4 till I was 42 and I miss Europe so....
Thanks for being here to share everyone!

+6 Vote up Vote down

Bridal Gowns Albany · 480 weeks ago

Appreciable post!Interesting & also informative.Thanks for share!

+5 Vote up Vote down

Wren · 688 weeks ago

Wow this is awesome. I"m a TCK and I never knew that there was a specific term for it. I am totally loving all this info. It really helps me better understand why I am the way I am. It makes perfect sense. As much info on this as I can get would be wonderful . I'm writing my psychology APA paper on this subject and i'm so excited about it.

1 reply · active 310 weeks ago

+2 Vote up Vote down

Rotating Equipment R · 476 weeks ago

Really useful Informations! I would bookmark this page.

+2 Vote up Vote down

ranaseo22 69p · 478 weeks ago

Nice post thanks admin for such a nice post

What is a Third Culture Kid?

TCK World proudly presents: Dr. Ruth Hill Useem -- the sociologist/anthopologist who first coined the term "Third Culture Kid" ("TCK")

Forgot password?

Comments (392)

Post a new comment

TCK Academy Class The first TCK class featuring Ruth Van Reken TCK Research A TCK research network.

TCK World proudly presents:
Dr. Ruth Hill Useem -- the sociologist/anthopologist who first coined the term "Third Culture Kid" ("TCK")

TCK Academy Class
The first TCK class featuring Ruth Van Reken
TCK Research
A TCK research network.