International experience and cultural intelligence development: A longitudinal assessment of Australian and French exchange students.

Cultural intelligence is an important capacity related to effective functioning in intercultural contexts, but questions remain as to how international experience supports its development. This longitudinal study assessed how the four facets of cultural intelligence developed during a semester-long student exchange program with Australian (N = 203, age M = 20.94, 66.5% female) and French students (N = 232, age M = 20.72, 69.8% female). Participants completed measures before, during, and directly after their exchange experience. Longitudinal multilevel modelling results showed that exchange enhanced cognitive, metacognitive and motivational cultural intelligence for both Australian and French students, while behavioral cultural intelligence only increased in Australian students. Importantly, the identified changes were found to be linear for all cultural intelligence facets, with the exception of metacognitive cultural intelligence in the Australian sample, showing that increases in cultural intelligence occurred throughout the duration of the exchange experience. Neither cultural distance nor previous travel experience influenced the amount of cultural intelligence change that occurred. The findings confirm that university student exchange is a valuable tool for promoting the development of cultural intelligence, supporting graduates to acquire abilities relevant to a global work environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]