Examining associations among achievement motivation, locus of control, academic stress, and life satisfaction: A comparison of U.S. and international undergraduate students

- International students have lower achievement motivation than U.S. students.
- Independent variables were significant predictors of achievement motivation.
- The predicting models were not different for both U.S. and International students.
- A statistically significant relationship between predictor and criterion variables.

This study compared measures of achievement motivation, life satisfaction, academic stress, and locus of control across 307 U.S. and international undergraduate students. Descriptive statistics and MANOVA were used to analyze the variables. A hierarchical multiple regression was employed to determine the extent to which locus of control, academic stress, and life satisfaction predicted achievement motivation. The results indicated a statistically significant difference between U.S. and international students as related to achievement motivation. Further analysis revealed significant relationships among predictor and criterion variables. Locus of control, academic stress, and life satisfaction significantly explained 18% of the variance in achievement motivation. However, a comparison of model fit between U.S. and international students revealed no statistically significant differences.