WHO AM I, WHERE DO I BELONG, WHAT IS MY FAITH? PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SPIRITUAL PROBLEMS OF THIRD CULTURE KIDS

The following paper concerns the topic of cross-cultural transition of Third Culture Kids and its determinants: personality, attachment style and religiosity. Third Culture Kids are understood in accordance with David Pollock and Van Reken as those who at least part of their childhood spent abroad. The results of the conducted research suggest that personality, measured by the Rorschach Inkblot Test, strongly determines emotional, cognitive and behavioral aspects of the process. Factors such as: anxiety and lack of emotional stability seem to be of great importance. Moreover, during cross-cultural transition the attachment style, developed in relations with parents or other attachment figures, strongly determines the building of relationships abroad. High distress, part and parcel of the process, brings out dysfunctional character of attachment style. Other typical traces mentioned in monograph devoted to Third Culture Kids by Pollock and Van Reken, as: problems with decision making and identity, lacking sense of belonging, unresolved grief, were also evidenced in my research. Religion and spirituality might be used as a coping strategy during cross-cultural transition. However, it seems very often not to be perceived as such or neglected by interviewees in the research.