Cultural adjustment stage #4 (and #5?)

When I studied about cultural adjustment, I had always learned that there were five stages: honeymoon, hostility, humor, #4, and home. Twenty years later, I wish I could recall what that fourth stage was labeled because it no longer shows up in most information about cultural adjustment. Now, most resources list the fourth stage as "home," or "adaptation and biculturalism."

With only four stages of cultural adjustment, the progression looks like this:

The final stage is one of adaptation or mastery, where the new culture feels like "home." Your child can see and accept the good and bad of the new culture, feels comfortable functioning on a daily basis, and has a deeper understanding of the people and culture. The time it takes to move to each level depends on the person and other circumstances, but each stage is generally experienced by students studying abroad regardless of the length of time they are there (assuming it is more than a few week "tour"). I went through all of these stages in 6 weeks in Peru as a 17-year-old and then again as a 20-year-old in Spain for 5 months. Of course, the "mastery" looked a little different in Peru than it did in Spain, but I remember experiencing all of those stages.

When you consider the possibility of 5 stages, the progression looks like this:

Notice that second dip down? After feeling the adjustment and confidence of the 3rd stage, some students are taken by surprise when they experience the frustration of another "mini-culture shock." If this is your child, you might be thinking, "here we go again. I thought she was all adjusted!" It would not be unusual for this stage to hit after the holidays (or during the holidays if your child is in a country that doesn't celebrate during that time). About mid-trip, your child might feel that the experience is getting long, that the return home seems far off in the future, and that deeper cultural understanding is hard.

The answer to this stage is not for you to get on a plane and fly over there! The answer is the same as the first level of culture shock. Encourage your child to keep interacting, get/stay involved, get enough sleep, eat well, and communicate with his/her host family. Eventually, your child will experience that final stage of "home."