The ins and outs of growing up as third-culture kids are that they feel like both insiders and outsiders of the societies that cultivate their sense of self. Experts tell Erik Nilsson how parents can boost the boons and keep the banes at bay.

Expatriates' children belong to multiple cultures - yet not like those societies' natives.

The upside is they sail comfortably through seas of diversity. The downside can be an unanchored homeland identity.

And the third-culture kid phenomenon is growing in China, as more foreigners raise children in the world's second-largest economy.

"It gives (TCKs) the opportunity to live outside the fishbowl and realize the life that exists around the world rather than just a tight-knit community," Beijing United Family Hospital's psychological health center director Robert Blinn says.

They're more sensitive to others and more receptive to diversity, he says.

Yet many struggle to understand who they are and which culture is more important, says the doctor who works with and writes about TCK families.

Mixed Blessings: A Guide to Multicultural and Multiethnic Relationships' co-author and counselor Harriet Cannon explains: "Some TCKs grow up to be citizens of the world with never-vanishing wanderlust. Some choose a place and plant roots because they didn't have them growing up. And some, especially those who lived in emerging economies, are more prone to struggle with identity problems and depression."

Janet Blomberg, executive director of the TCK care and education organization Interaction International, says: "TCKs are figuring out what's normal and how the world works at the same time they're figuring out who they are. When they get beyond age 18, they don't stop being a third-culture kid ... You become an adult third-culture kid."

American Nick Golding and Ugandan Julian Kirabo realize their 2-year-old girl Zuri will be influenced by growing up in Beijing. But they're not sure how - or how much.

"I believe the (TCK) phenomenon is overhyped and overgeneralized," Golding says.

"It seems like an attempt to use a single concept to describe a large group of children that have very different situations ... Missionary kids who live most of their childhood in rural Uganda probably have little in common with the children of business executives who spend their childhood living in major cities throughout Asia."

Portuguese parents Ana Magalhaes and Renato Roldao, who've raised their 5-year-old son Pedro in Beijing since he was 6 months old, also aren't certain if the categorization overgeneralizes.

"But, for sure, we can see our son is different from the kids back home who are raised in a single culture," Magalhaes says.

Blinn says that while TCKs in China aren't much different from TCKs elsewhere, resources for these children have mushroomed in Beijing since he arrived in 2003.

The number of counselors has more than tripled from about four, he says.

Schools have better counseling for TCKs struggling to adapt. And the increasing availability of Western conveniences has made acclimatizing easier.

"Those simple comforts from home can make adjusting a lot easier."

Blinn believes that, while TCK upbringings' benefits outweigh the disadvantages, it's important for kids to have roots.

"Constant moving can be very jarring for kids," he says.

"They can develop a feeling of rootlessness and become a sort of nomad."

It's critical kids form attachments in new countries of residence and vital they're not dissolved too soon after.

Cannon explains passport-country identity depends on children's personalities and parents' efforts to "keep that culture alive at home".

Children younger than 7 rarely retain much sense of self from their birth countries, Mixed Blessings' co-author and mental health provider consultant Rhoda Berlin says.

"Older children who go international can have either a healthy passport identity or an idealized, romanticized vision of their homeland," she says.

Kids younger than 10 typically adapt more easily to new cultures and languages, and learn to speak without accents.

"Children over 8 have a harder time integrating to a new educational system and may not always tell their parents when things are not going smoothly," Cannon says.

"Middle school is a life stage of group conformity. If a TCK is one of few expats at a host national school, he or she may be bullied, ostracized and have a very hard time understanding the norms of the educational system."

International schools are preferable for most TCKs but especially older kids, Berlin says.

"International schools are set up to welcome newcomers," she says.

"Teachers and staff recognize culture shock at different ages and stages of child development, will identify a child who struggles and will intervene sooner rather than later."

Another benefit is their classmates will largely be TCKs.

"TCKs tend to be attracted to each other for lots of reasons, an important one being they share a kindred worldview of flexibility, adventure and multilingual, multicultural experience," Cannon says.

"It's not unusual for TCKs ... to find each other, marry and continue on as expat adults raising TCKs."

Parents who are TCKs better understand what this means for kids.

"The difference between parents and their children shows up in many ways," Blomberg says.

"For example, the question 'where are you from?' is easier for expatriate parents unless they're TCKs themselves ... Consequently, parents make decisions and give advice to their children in light of their own experience, which is very different from their TCK world."

Experts advise parents listen to their children.

"Some (TCKs) hit the ground running. And some hate it," Blinn says.

"Don't blame but ask how you can help the adjustment."

Contact the writers at erik_nilsson@chinadaily.com.cn

Kurt Nagl contributed to this story.

Pedro Roldao, now 5, and his Portuguese parents Renato Roldao and Ana Magalhaes ride a rickshaw through Beijing's hutong. They believe raising their son in China will help his development. Photos Provided to China Daily

Zuri Golding, 2, eats traditional Chinese steamed dumplings. She's growing up in China with her American father Nick Golding and Ugandan mother Julian Kirabo. Her parents believe such a multicultural and multilingual upbringing will help their daughter in the future.

(China Daily 06/22/2014 page3)