Gender differences in cultural acceptance and career orientation among internationally mobile and non-internationally mobile adolescents

An adolescent who spends some part of his or her developmental years in one or more countries other than their country of origin or citizenship due to the international work of their parents is called an Internationally Mobil e adolescent (IM) or Third Culture Kid (TCK) or Global Nomad (GN) or Intern ational School Student (ISS). Research has suggested that these adolescents develop greater cultural acceptance; they have an increased openness to le arning other languages; they generally are satisfied living abroad; they wi sh to maintain geographically mobile lives; and they are interested in futu re international careers. Interestingly, gender differences on these variab les with internationally mobile adolescents have not appeared in the profes sional literature even though there is a voluminous literature with other g roups. This reanalysis used data from the largest known study of internatio nally mobile adolescents on two continents with peers who have maintained r esidence in only one country throughout their lives (N = 1,076). Findings s upport the impression of consistent gender differences. This analysis sugge sts the possibility that living abroad is a crucial experience to develop f emale interest in international careers. The largest and most meaningful di fferences in this study are between females who have lived abroad and both males and females who have not, and between females and males who have neve r lived abroad.