Habenicht, Donna J. A Descriptive Study of the Personality, Attitudes, and Overseas Experience of Seventh-Day Adventist College Students who served as Short-Term Volunteer Missionaries. (dissertation)
Summary: 150 Seventh-day Adventist college students who served as short-term volunteer missionaries (10 to 12 months) during the 1975-76 school year filled out questionnaires and surveys assessing their personalities, attitudes, and overseas experience. The results showed that a wide range of personalities had participated, with the one common distinguishing characteristic that all showed a high degree of self-control. Participating as a student missionary appeared to strengthen the students' religious commitment, promote growth and maturity, and encourage a lifelong commitment to missions.
If you want to know about what it was like to be a Seventh-day Adventist student missionary in the mid-seventies (who wouldn't?), this is the place to look: the surveys cover everything to the number of siblings the volunteers have to their eating arrangements and dating habits while overseas.