Personality, Well-Being, and Cultural Empathy of Third Culture Kids: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Third Culture Kids (TCKs) are thought to face unique challenges and have distinctive strengths that follow them into their adult years. While the number of publications related to TCKs has increased greatly over the past ten years, there is minimal research comparing this group to others and identifying whether or not this group experiences significant differences in the areas of psychological well-being, personality, and cultural empathy. This study examined those factors and found that compared to a demographically similar sample of Americans who have never lived outside of the United States, statistically significant differences were present on factors of personality and cultural empathy. Results indicated that TCKs scored higher on the personality factors of extraversion and openness as well as several areas of cultural empathy.