The relationships among self-efficacy, achievement motivation, and work values for regular four-year university students and community college students in China

This study investigated the relationships among self-efficacy, achievement motivation, and work values for both regular four-year university students and community college students in China. Self-efficacy and achievement motivation were independent variables measured by Wang's (1999) Self-Efficacy Inventory (SEI) and Ye and Hagtvet's (1992) Achievement Motivation Scale (AMS), respectively. The dependent variable was work values measured by Jin and Li's (2005) Work Values Scale (WVS). A total of 384 students participated in this study, 186 from a regular four-year university and 198 from a community college in Beijing, China.;For the comparison between the two types of institutions, results showed that community college students had lower levels of self-efficacy, higher levels of motivation to avoid failure, and lower intentional work values than regular four-year university students. For the relationship among the three variables, results indicated that: (1) Students with higher levels of self-efficacy focused more on intentional work values including family, status, achievement, and social improvement; (2) Students with higher levels of motivation to achieve success focused more on intentional work values and students with higher levels of motivation to avoid failure focused more on instrumental work values; (3) Students with higher levels of self-efficacy had higher levels of overall achievement motivation and motivation to achieve success but lower levels of motivation to avoid failure; and (4) Institution type had a mediation effect in the relationship between self-efficacy and the first factor of the instrumental work values, stability.;This study was an attempt to focus on community college students as well as regular four-year university students. Detailed results and implications to career development of college students, especially community college students, in the China's background of economic development were discussed.