Search results

This cross-sectional investigation explores the relative importance of specific psychological factors influencing adjustment in a sample of internationally mobile children and adolescents, commonly referred to as third culture kids (TCKs), living in Switzerland.

The study cohort comprised 126 participants aged 7–17 years, all of whom had experienced international relocations due to their parents' professional commitments. Participants were recruited from local and international schools in Switzerland, and data were collected through validated online questionnaires after obtaining informed consent. The study focused on proximal psychological factors, including emotion regulation strategies (such as cognitive reappraisal and emotion suppression), negative social cognition, resilience and perceived stress, assessing their impact on psychological adjustment. Outcomes were measured through indicators of well-being and mental health, including emotional and behavioral symptoms.

Commonality analysis was used to evaluate the relative contributions of each psychological factor to well-being and mental health in the sample. Perceived stress emerged as the most significant contributor to well-being, while resilience played a crucial buffering role against mental-health difficulties. These findings are consistent with Berry’s Acculturative Stress Model, which highlights the importance of managing stress in the context of cultural transitions. Additionally, the presence of well-established expatriate support networks in Switzerland may have mitigated the negative effects of stress, suggesting that similar patterns may not hold in less resource-rich environments.

The study offers important insights into the challenges faced by TCKs during international relocations, underscoring the need for further cross-cultural research. It remains essential to examine whether emotion regulation strategies such as cognitive reappraisal and resilience mechanisms function similarly in different cultural and socioeconomic contexts.

The findings also suggest the potential benefits of tailored psychotherapeutic interventions aimed at enhancing the well-being and adaptive capacity of TCKs.

Overall, this research contributes valuable knowledge to the understanding of the psychological mechanisms that can inform strategies for supporting TCKs as they navigate the complexities of global mobility.

The COVID-19 pandemic was an eye-opening experience that put to the test our crisis management competencies across many institutions, including those offered by institutions of higher education. This study aims to review the literature on international business (IB) risks and IB education (IBE) to question whether business graduates are equipped to make decisions in today’s volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) marketplace.

While the IB literature has discussed the importance of various sources of risks on global business operations, IBE did not effectively adopt an integrative approach to building the needed risk management competencies related to those risks into our education. The authors argue that this integrative approach to teaching IB is critically needed to prepare future global managers for addressing crises, like that of the pandemic and others. Specifically, this study proposes that this integrated risk management competency can be developed through the building of “synergistic mindsets”.

This study presents a conceptual framework for the components of the synergistic mindset, with intelligence that directly links to present IB risks. These components are cultural intelligence (CQ), emotional intelligence (EQ), public policy intelligence (PPQ), digital intelligence (DQ) and orchestration intelligence (OQ).

Insights related to IBE effectiveness in addressing today’s VUCA market demands and IB risks are discussed.

Incivility can be used to target minority groups as a form of discrimination. This paper aimed to assess the extent to which older workers are particularly targeted by cyber incivility.

Study 1 used a cross-sectional design via an online crowdsourcing platform (N = 208). Study 2 (N = 227) employed a daily diary approach with an age diverse sample.

Age does not directly affect perceptions of cyber incivility, but moderates the relationships between cyber incivility and vitality and vigor. In Study 1, older workers experienced a weaker relationship between perceptions of cyber incivility and increased reports of vigor. Conversely, in Study 2, older workers who experienced cyber incivility reported reduced daily vitality both on the same day and the following day.

The discussion explores the nuances of vigor and vitality in older workers. Additionally, despite research on selective incivility, these studies suggest that while older workers may not be selectively targeted for cyber incivility, they struggle more with its repercussions.