No One Can Place Me in a Box: Exploring the Identity Status of Adult Third Culture Kids

Abstract

Given the mixed findings on Adult Third-Culture Kids’ (ATCKs) identity development, the study explored whether ATCKs’ identity problems, particularly identity moratorium, were in fact related to their relativistic thinking developed as a result of their experiences abroad; more specifically, the study tested whether relativistic thinking in ATCKs mediated the relationship between cross-cultural experience and identity moratorium. The study did not find a significant relationship between either cross-cultural experience and identity moratorium, or cross-cultural experience and relativistic thinking, but did between identity moratorium and relativistic thinking.