Do Sojourn Effects on Personality Trait Changes Last? A Five–Year Longitudinal Study

Abstract

This study examined sojourners’ long–term personality trait changes over five years, extending previous research on immediate sojourn effects. A sample of German students ( N = 1095) was surveyed thrice (T1–T3) over the course of an academic year. Sojourners ( n = 498) lived abroad shortly after T1 for one or two semesters; stayers ( n = 597) remained in their home country. Five years after T1, we surveyed the same participants ( n = 441, 40.3%) again (T4). Beyond substantial selection effects, latent neighbour–change models revealed that small differences between sojourners’ and stayers’ openness, agreeableness, and neuroticism changes occurred early after sojourn–induced contextual change. Model estimates suggested sustained sojourn effects on openness and neuroticism changes thereafter and a reversed effect on agreeableness change after return. Because of reduced power and low accuracy at T4, these estimates were not statistically significant. Based on model comparison analyses, however, we could rule out reversed effects for openness and accentuated effects for agreeableness and neuroticism as least likely. Moreover, separating short–term and long–term sojourners revealed no substantial differences, but recurring sojourn experiences tended to play a role in sustaining differences. We discuss implications for future studies on patterns of sojourn effects on personality trait changes. © 2020 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology