Cross-cultural stress: causes and coping strategies
Living in a cross-cultural context causes stress, but there are ways to manage it
Uninterrupted stress of enough intensity leads to exhaustion sooner or later in most individuals.”
— Hans Selye —
You’re into your second or third term. Your language ability isn’t great, but it’s acceptable. Your kids have adapted well to living overseas and even have a few Japanese friends. You are relating well to the church people. Your neighbors know you and are friendly. And the church is growing slowly but surely. Yet you still feel stressed out. You wonder, What is going on? Why am I still struggling after all these years? The reason is not culture shock but rather cross-culture stress. Below, I define cross-culture stress, consider its causes, and suggest ways to manage it.
Cross-culture stress has been defined as “the adjustment stage in which people accept the new environment, adopting new ways of thinking and doing things so that they feel like they belong to the new culture. This takes years, and some missionaries never complete it. This may go on and on.”1 Everyone who is living cross‐culturally experiences cross-culture stress, even those who are adjusting well. It comes from what may be called change overload.
Some causes of cross-cultural stress are:
- Involvement: The greater your involvement with a culture, the more stress you experience.
- Values: The more the values of your culture differ from those of your host culture, the greater the stress.
- Communication: Learning a language is only a small part of being able to communicate effectively. Non‐verbal signals, ways of thinking, and a shared knowledge base are all important aspects of communication but may take years to learn.
- Temperament: The more your temperament differs from that of an average person of your adopted culture, the more stress you experience.
- Entry–reentry: Most cross‐cultural workers live in two different cultures, never feeling fully at home in either.
- Children: If you have children and they adopt the values of your host culture, you will feel different from them.
- Multinational teams: Working with nationals from other countries can increase effectiveness, but can also cause increased stress.2
The first step to managing cross-cultural stress is to recognize that it exists and is an inevitable part of living in another culture. The next step is to understand that most such stress comes from two common mistakes.
The biggest mistake you can make is thinking that your adopted culture is not valid. It’s hard not to be critical and feel your own culture is better. But it’s important to remember that God works within culture and that the gospel is relevant no matter what the culture. Contextualizing the gospel extends back to the apostle Paul.3 He didn’t let culture stand in his way of sharing the gospel; rather, he became all things to all men that he might win some (1 Corinthians 9:22).
The second mistake, which is common among new recruits, is feeling that you have to submerge yourself in the host culture in order to understand it and improve your language skills. This can lead to discouragement and burn-out as cultural differences and language can be overwhelming. New workers need to learn that cross-cultural life is a marathon, not a sprint. And getting fellowship with those from our own culture is essential because it allows us to relax and be ourselves. This is an important part of staying balanced in our missionary lives.
Living cross-culturally is stressful. But remember, you are in control of how you adapt to a new culture. Choose well what you want to change and what you don’t want to change. This will go a long way in helping you manage your stress. It’s impossible to live cross-culturally and not have stress. But with a little effort and planning, we can manage the stress and keep our lives in balance. Cross-cultural living is challenging, but if managed well, we can keep our stress from becoming distress.
1. Ronald L. Koteskey, “What Missionaries Ought to know about Culture Stress,” accessed Sept 19, 2016. http://www.missionarycare.com/culture-stress
2. Ibid
3. Jon L. Dybdahl, “Cross-cultural adaptation,” November 1992, https://www.ministrymagazine.org/archive/1992/11/cross-cultural-adaptation