In Sense of Place in Developmental Context (Robert Hay, 1998), the author says that teenagers who have experienced being away from home (e.g. at boarding school) tend to have more awareness of their sense of place through homesickness, while those who do not have such experience may take their place for granted in the teenage years. This point coincide with my personal experience: I have noticed that students who have ever studied abroad usually speak of their country with a more passionate voice that those who haven't (which shows their greater sense of place), and such changes is not necessarily accompanied by changes in the perception of what their country is really like; those students have a seemingly paradoxical opinion of being patriotic and admitting the negative aspects of their country. So I think that the greater sense of place has more to do with emotion than with physical conditions, in other words, more to do with place identity than with place attachment, due to the difference in definition of the two terms (Hernandez et al, 2007).
Besides, I have some questions regarding the point and my personal experience: studying abroad means being away from both one's city and one's country, and does such experience strengthen more sense of place with the city or with the country? And what factors can affect the answer?