The moderating effect of multicultural self-efficacy on the relation between geographical relocation and interpersonal identity commitment

Abstract

Background: Many adolescents, especially third culture kids (TCKs) leave the safety of their homes and relocate to a new, unknown country for various reasons. Geographical relocation can cause various stressors in their lives, including the loss of friendships. This repeated loss could have adverse effects on their interpersonal identity commitment, which might reduce their willingness to invest and form friendship. However, having a strong sense of multicultural self-efficacy could be a protective factor against the negative impact that geographical relocation could have on adolescents’ interpersonal identity commitment. Therefore, this study aims to investigate if adolescents who move around frequently engage less in interpersonal identity commitment and whether having a strong sense of multicultural self-efficacy protects against this link.

Methods: Data from 20 adolescents (M age = 14.1, range = 12.4 to 15.6), between the ages of 12-15 years from both Dutch and international schools were analysed.

Results: Results showed that contrary to the hypotheses, frequent relocation enhances adolescents’ interpersonal identity commitment and having a strong sense of multicultural self-efficacy does not affect this link.

Conclusion: This means that geographical relocation may not adversely affect adolescents’ interpersonal identity commitment and thereby the formation and maintenance of adolescent’s social relationship. Due to possible limitations of this study, the effect of adolescent’s multicultural self-efficacy on the relationship were not identified. Further research is needed to establish this connection. Though the findings suggest that relocation might enhance adolescents’ interpersonal identity commitment, this must be interpreted with caution due to the small sample size.