Many educators fear that early college entrance may be too stressful for young adolescents and therefore deleterious to healthy personality development. Advocates of acceleration point out the absence of research support for such concerns. In fact, the available evidence is not conclusive because previous studies: (a) often fail to use standard, well-validated personality measures; and/or (b) do not examine student adjustment both before and after a period of acceleration. The present study examined the adjustment of 33 female accelerants by administering the California Psychological Inventory at the beginning and end of their first academic year in a residential early college entrance program. Accelerants evidenced a surprisingly consistent pattern of healthy personality growth over the course of the year. Similar growth was not observed in a control group of capable nonacceferants attending traditional high schools.
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