Place Identity Construction of Third Culture Kids by Anastasia Aldelina

Bloom Where You Are Planted: Place Identity Construction of Third Culture Kids by Anastasia Aldelina Lijadi Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology 2015 Faculty of Social Sciences University of Macau Bloom Where You are Planted: Place Identity Construction of Third Culture Kids by Anastasia Aldelina Lijadi SUPERVISOR: Prof. Gertina J. Van Schalkwyk DEPARTMENT: Psychology Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology 2015 Faculty of Social Sciences University of Macau Author’s right 2015 by LIJADI, Anastasia Aldelina Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to offer my sincerest gratitude to my supervisor, Prof Gertina J. van Schalkwyk, for her continuous support of my PhD journey. Her great patience, motivation, enthusiasm, and immense knowledge helped me throughout the entire process of researching and writing of this dissertation, whilst at the same time allowing me sufficient room to work in my own way. I am privileged to be involved in the improvement of the Collage Life Story Elicitation Technique—her respected semi-structured interview technique, and I would like to contribute further in the utilization and advancement of this technique. I gained a great deal of experience from being her teaching assistant in several courses in the Department of Psychology at the University of Macau and I am grateful for the opportunity I had to be a visiting lecturer there teaching an Introduction to Psychology course. I attribute the level of my Doctoral degree to her encouragement and guidance and without her, this dissertation would not have been completed. Besides my supervisor, I would like to thank the rest of my thesis advisory committee: Prof Allan B. I. Bernardo and Prof Anise Wu, for their invaluable input, insightful comments, and well-grounded questions during the qualifying examination and proposal defence. I am also grateful to Prof K. K. Tong and Prof Rik Carl d’Amato who have offered much advice and insight during my preparation for the qualifying examination, as well as sharing experiences in publishing scholarly articles. Throughout my four years of PhD study, Prof John Corbett has guided me in mastering PhD scholarship practices including organizing and presenting at a graduate conference, writing a book review, as well as editing and publishing in a i peer–reviewed journal. I am appreciative of Prof Todd L. Sandel for involving me in a round-table discussion from which I gained insight and expertise in intercultural communications, and also for his co-writing a paper with me. Kim Johnson has assisted me as collaborator during data analysis for this qualitative study. I have been blessed with a kind-hearted friend, and at the same time a critical-thinker but gracious colleague in reviewing my data. I would like to dedicate this dissertation to Third Culture Kids organizations, individuals and families around the world. I have read so many stories and discussions on third culture kids from the blogs, social media, and magazines, which inspired me to give voice to this marginalised community of global citizens. I am extremely thankful for those TCK who participated in my studies and who shared their life experiences with me. I am also thankful for the cooperation and support I received from the parents of the young TCK—you know who you are—for allowing your children to participate in my study. I also want to thank The Change School (www.thechangeschool.com) who invited me to give a talk at the TCK summit about the identity construction of TCK based on the findings from this dissertation. The Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, has provided the support and assistance I have needed throughout my study to produce and complete my dissertation. Finally, I would like to thank my family for their encouragement and support in my study, especially my husband for his unconditional love, my mother for believing in me, and my two daughters who are without a doubt the inspiration for the topic of my dissertation. ii Abstract A place called home possesses emotional implications, provides some degree of stability and serves as a reference for past action, memories and meaning. Home for most people is their place identity that provides a critical locale and antecedent for continuity in the face of change. Third Culture Kids (TCK) experiences numerous life disruptions moving between countries and continents following their parents during their developmental years. Their high mobility lifestyle affects the negotiation and maintenance of a coherent sense of self (identity) in relation to a place called home due to movement between different parts of the world and across multiple cultures. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe how TCK construct meaning of their high mobility lifestyle and how their sense of place influenced their identity construction. Using qualitative inquiry, the research was divided into two studies: Study 1 used a semi-structured interview approach that employed the Collage Life Story Elicitation Technique to obtain life stories of 27 TCK (aged 7-17 years); Study 2 involved an asynchronous Facebook online focus group with 33 adult TCK participants (aged 19 and above). The findings indicate that a place called home manifest itself in different ways across the cohorts. All cohorts claim home is family, familiar traditions and rituals, the places from where the family came, and all places where they have lived. TCK in pre-adolescence and older claim that in a place called home they need to expand their social network and continue to learn and deal with their losses. Adolescent TCK claim they need to deal with frequent changes, and that they are longing for direction for their future. The adult TCK report accumulated implications of the high mobility lifestyles they led as children, all of which affected their sense of belonging and sense of community. This dissertation concludes, therefore, by proposing five enabling modalities of place iii identity construction for TCK: sense of stability, sense of belonging, sense of direction, sense of connectedness, and sense of community. Keywords: Collage Life-story Elicitation Technique; Home; Identity; Mobility; Online focus groups; Place identity; Social constructionism; Social relationships; Third Culture Kid. iv Declaration I declare that the thesis here submitted is original except for the source materials explicitly acknowledged and that this thesis as a whole, or any part of this thesis has not been previously submitted for the same degree or for a different degree. I also acknowledge that I have read and understood the Rules on Handling Student Academic Dishonesty and the Regulations of the Student Discipline of the University of Macau. v Table of Contents Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... i Abstract ...................................................................................................................... ii Declaration ................................................................................................................ iii List of Tables and Figures .......................................................................................... v List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................ vii Chapter 1 Introduction .............................................................................................. 1 1.1 Rational of the Study ............................................................................................ 2 1.2 Purpose of the Study ............................................................................................ 6 1.3 Framework of the Study ..................................................................................... 8 1.4 Implications and Contribution...........................................................................11 1.6 Statement of Originality ....................................................................................12 Chapter 2 Literature Review ................................................................................... 13 2.1 Social Constructionism ...................................................................................... 14 2.2 Third Culture Kid .............................................................................................. 16 2.2.1 TCK Transition Cycle ................................................................................ 18 2.2.2 Benefits and Challenges from a High Mobility Lifestyle .......................... 21 2.2.3 Enculturation and Acculturation ................................................................ 25 2.2.4 The International School ............................................................................28 2.2.5 Language ....................................................................................................29 2.2.6 Repatriation Phenomenon ..........................................................................31 2.3 Place Interactions and Place Identity Construction ........................................ 33 2.3.1 Home and Sense of Belonging ................................................................... 35 2.3.2 Place Attachment ....................................................................................... 37 2.3.3 Sense of Community .................................................................................. 38 2.3.4 Interplay between Various Concepts of Place and Place Identity .............40

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