Sending your teenagers away. Controlled stress decreases neurotic vulnerability.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of a controlled stressor on the rate of personality maturity. DESIGN: Eighteen-month prospective controlled study. SETTING: General community. EXPERIMENTAL Exposed to the stress of 12 months' intercultural experience. CONTROL Remained in usual environment. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: A measure of personality vulnerability/maturity derived from a canonical correlational combination of trait anxiety, locus of control, and defense style. RESULTS: Exchange students exposed to the stressor made significantly greater gains in personality maturity (0.28 vs 0.03 SD P < or = .01) than did the control students matched on this measure at baseline. CONCLUSION: Exchange students exposed to the stress of living abroad showed a substantial decrease in vulnerability, which should decrease the risk of future neurotic disorders in this group.