| Learning Objective #1: Identify key themes which reflect significant emotional and social costs of relocation stress and transience to internationally mobile families | |||
| Learning Objective #2: Identify strategies employed by internationally mobile families to manage relocation stress and transience and the place of international schooling in the process |
This thesis is about internationally mobile families managing transience and the place of international schooling in that process. It is based upon the findings of a qualitative research study conducted at a private, international school in Southern England. 45 internationally mobile families from diverse cultures participated in the study. The study included an intervention that consisted of the implementation of a Personal and Social Education (PSE) program for 13- to 14-year old students with a parent involvement component. The PSE program served as a vehicle both for the researcher to access families and for the IM families to discuss issues together. Parents and their children used the PSE program to communicate about important family issues. After completion of the PSE program, 90 semi-structured audio taped interviews were conducted with families.
The initial focus of the study explored parent involvement in their children's education and the focus broadened as the overarching theme of managing transience emerged from the data. Specific themes included the human costs of relocation stress to IM families as well as the benefits to IM families of living an IM lifestyle. The complexity of parent-adolescent relationships in IM families, the challenges of parenting 'global nomads' of 'Third Culture Kids' (TCKs), and the complexities of 'roots', nationality, the concept of 'home' and a 'sense of belonging' for IM children were explored. The involvement of families in education and the international school community were found to be important links in the management of transience. Parents, particularly the majority of mothers, used the international school community to monitor and to keep close contact with their uprooted children, to pursue their perceived parental responsibilites, and if needed, to establish a support system for themselves. The preservation and integrity of the family were of primary importance to the IM families in this study.
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