Yue Yun, Lu Jinjin
School of Education, Torrens University Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Chaoyang University of Technology, Taichung, Taiwan.
Front Psychol. 2022 Mar 23;13:841122. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.841122. eCollection 2022.
Push-pull theory, consumer decision-making models and rational choice theory are commonly used to explain international student mobility (ISM). Despite their merits, the individual's motivation to study abroad is ignored. Based on two motivation theories-expectancy-value theory (EVT) and self-determination theory (SDT), this study examines whether students' intention to study abroad originates from the students themselves or compromises social pressure and how the external factors defined in push-pull theory work with these motivations to affect their decision-making. A quantitative study was conducted with a sample size of 736 international students in China. The findings show that the decision to study abroad is a highly subjective and intrinsically driven behavior in which realizing one's self-worth or fulfilling one's purpose of life plays the most significant role. Making a decision needs a "cost-benefits calculus," but the utility value of study abroad was positioned behind attainment value and identified motivation. The heterogeneity of international students' motivation was also differentiated by both their gender and their parents' educational backgrounds.
推拉理论、消费者决策模型和理性选择理论通常用于解释国际学生流动（ISM）。尽管它们有优点，但个人出国留学的动机却被忽视了。基于两种动机理论——期望价值理论（EVT）和自我决定理论（SDT），本研究考察了学生出国留学的意愿是源于学生自身还是受到社会压力的影响，以及推拉理论中定义的外部因素如何与这些动机共同作用来影响他们的决策。对在中国的736名国际学生进行了一项定量研究。研究结果表明，出国留学的决定是一种高度主观且内在驱动的行为，其中实现自我价值或实现人生目标起着最重要的作用。做出决定需要进行“成本效益计算”，但出国留学的效用价值排在成就价值和认同动机之后。国际学生动机的异质性也因他们的性别和父母的教育背景而有所不同。
