Students’ expectancy-value profiles in the West and the East: Cross-cultural similarities and differences

Abstract

The renaming of expectancy-value theory (EVT) to situated expectancy-value theory (SEVT) highlights researchers' recognition that culture and context are fundamental to understanding students' motivation. Much of the work on SEVT, however, has taken a variable-centered approach. Despite the growth of studies using SEVT, researchers have seldom examined differences in the configurations of expectancy-value beliefs of students from different cultural contexts. We aimed to examine cross-cultural similarities and differences in the configurations of expectancy and value beliefs. Data were from Western (N = 42,182; Australia, New Zealand, UK, and USA) and Eastern (N = 41,488; Hong Kong, Macau, Mainland China, and Taipei, Japan, Korea) cultures. Multigroup latent profile analysis identified four profiles in each culture, categorizing students into high, moderate, low, and very low expectancy-value groups. Results revealed both cross-cultural similarities (same number of profiles, means of expectancy and value for three out of four profiles) and differences (within-profile differences, profile sizes, and associations of profiles with predictors and outcomes). The findings emphasize importance of taking culture into account when exploring students' motivation across diverse contexts.