Jeanne Stevenson Moessner

Theological Dimensions of Maturation in a Missionary Milieu - European University Studies Jeanne Stevenson Moessner

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.