Abstract
This study extends research on adult narrative identity in two major ways. First, it focuses on Adult Third Culture Kids (ATCKs), which refer to individuals who spent a part of their early developmental years abroad. In spite of the fact that they are an important demographic to study in this rapidly globalizing world, they have tended to be neglected in the field of psychology. Second, this study incorporates the cutting-edge tools of automated language analysis to extract developmental themes from autobiographical narratives using a bottom-up exploratory approach, as well as to identify psychological patterns and processes associated with the themes. The participants (N = 350; 18–80 + years old) were recruited from an alumni office of an international school and asked to write a narrative about the impact their international experiences had on their development. The meaning extraction method (MEM) yielded four developmental themes, which were remarkably consistent with the recurring themes that emerge from past research on adult narrative identity as well as ATCKs: past focus, communion, agency, and global focus. These four developmental themes, in turn, showed theoretically coherent patterns of relations with the demographic variables, linguistic markers of psychological patterns and processes, as well as self-reports of dimensions of well-being.
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Notes
Due to the sensitive nature of the questions asked in this study, survey respondents were assured that the data would remain confidential. Thus, the data set is not suitable for posting on the internet. For further information regarding the data, please contact the author.
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The author would like to thank Ryan L. Boyd for helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript and Katherine K. Abe for assistance with this project.
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No conflict of interest to disclose. This study was supported in part by a CSU-AAUP Faculty Research Grant Award.
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Abe, J.A. Developmental Themes in the Narrative of Adults with Early International Experiences. J Adult Dev (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10804-023-09464-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10804-023-09464-5