Values, achievement goals, and individual-oriented and social-oriented achievement motivations among Chinese and Indonesian secondary school students

This study examined how values related to achievement goals and individual-oriented and social-oriented achievement motivations among secondary school students in China (N=355) and Indonesia (N=356). Statistical comparisons showed the Chinese students endorsed more strongly than the Indonesian students on self-direction and hedonism values, individual-oriented achievement motivation, and mastery-approach goals. Conversely, the Indonesian students endorsed more strongly than their Chinese counterparts on security, conformity, tradition, universalism and achievement values, social-oriented achievement motivation, and performance-approach and mastery-avoidance goals. Values explained a significant amount of the variance in almost all of the dimensions of motivation. Etic and emic relationships between values and achievement motivations were found.