Theological Dimensions of Maturation in a Missionary Milieu

Adolescent children of missionaries can experience complications in their maturation. Various sociological and theological factors are considered in this research. The religious profile of missionary children, a tendency to undergo «cultural rootlessness,» a sense of sacrifice, a propensity to return to an overseas situation as adults, and the phenomenon of «cultural enclosure» are all issues under investigation with three distinct samples of one hundred and sixty-one children. The research stemming out of Michigan State University's Institute for International Studies in Education on «Third Culture Children» has been utilized; a review of related mission literature from 1936 to the present is offered.