The Personal Consequences of a Year of Study Abroad

Using a design involving experimental and control groups, this study evaluates the effect of a year of study abroad on the self-realization of a group of junior-year students in France. The kind of self-realization which is proposed by the ideologues and custodians of such programs is seen to be aimed at producing a liberal-international version of a typically modern individual. Using this model as a guide, a series of hypotheses regarding the effects on individuals of a year of overseas study were developed. The tests of these hypotheses involved the comparison of changes in the junior-year group and a group which remained at home. Some support for the hypotheses was obtained from assessments made at the end of the year abroad, but a later assessment, using less-than-adequate data, suggests that most of the personality changes derived from the overseas experience did not persist after return home. Further research is called for.