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Ponte Academic Journal
Aug 2017, Volume 73, Issue 8

ETHNIC IDENTITY FORMATION, SELF-ESTEEM AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SYMPTOMS AMONG THIRD CULTURE INDIVIDUALS

Author(s): Gloria Manyeruke ,Ebru Cakici

J. Ponte - Aug 2017 - Volume 73 - Issue 8
doi: 10.21506/j.ponte.2017.8.21



Abstract:
The goal of this study was to investigate the ethnic identity formation, self-esteem and psychological health of Third Culture Individuals (TCI) in comparison with their mono-cultural peers living in their home country, Zimbabwe. It was also within the scope of this study to investigate the differences between TCIs living within Africa and TCIs who migrated to countries outside Africa. This study was conducted as an internet based cross sectional research. The study had 88 participants, 51.1% female and 48.9% male. Snowball sampling was employed in this study. 30.4% of the participants resided in Zimbabwe, 40.5% were Zimbabwean TCIs living in South Africa and 29.1% in the United Kingdom. TCIs had lower affective identity scores than their mono-cultural counterparts. TCIs living in other African countries were found to suffer more from psychological symptoms and had lower ethnic identity score than the other two groups. The study also revealed correlation between ethnic identity and the participant`s age but not with self-esteem nor psychological symptoms. The results of this study suggest that the xenophobia in African countries has negative consequences on the immigrants. The TCIs who have chance to express their ethnical identity without fear experience better ethnic identity formation and less psychological symptoms. Key words: third culture individuals; ethnic identity formation; self-esteem; xenophobia; globalization.
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