ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
Analysis of the Current Situation of College Students' Achievement Motivation and Influencing Factors—An Empirical Analysis Based on a College in Shandong Province
Provisionally accepted
- 1Jining Medical University, Jining, China
- 2Shandong Second Medical University, Weifang, China
- 3Affiliated Hospital of Jining Medical University, Jining, China
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Background: College students' academic success and future growth are greatly impacted by achievement motivation, an innate desire for excellence. Higher education is an important time for students to socialize, and achievement motivation has a big impact on personal values, which is important for producing top-notch workers. Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the current state of college students' achievement motivation and the elements that influence it. Methods: 2,849 students from a university in Shandong Province participated in a cross-sectional survey. The Achievement Motivation Scale was used to measure the motivation to strive for achievement vs the motivation to avoid failure. SPSS version 27.0 was utilized for conducting descriptive statistics, single-factor analysis, and performing multiple linear regression analysis. Results: College students' average achievement motivation score was 4.38 ± 12.99, with a noticeably unequal distribution across motivation levels. Gender, parental literacy level, personal and parental health condition, family annual income, future goals, and short-term plans all showed statistically significant variations in achievement motivation, according to a single-factor analysis (p < 0.05). However, multiple linear regression analysis showed that the direct effects of variables like family annual income and parental literacy level were no longer significant after adjusting for inter-variable interactions. Conclusion: This study confirms that gender, personal health condition, and short-term plans are important influencing factors and demonstrates considerable individual differences in university students' achievement motivation with an uneven overall distribution. It offers both practical advice and theoretical foundations for applying differentiated instruction in higher education settings.
Keywords: achievement motivation, college students, current status, Empirical analysis, Influencing factors
Received: 16 Jul 2025; Accepted: 05 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 党, 靳, 牛, 王, 于, 周, 孙 and 谢. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
浩 孙
辉 谢
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