Does poverty really stifle ambition? A latent profile analysis of achievement motivation for economically disadvantaged Chinese university students

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the differences in achievement motivation between college students from low-income and normal-income backgrounds, and to explore the key characteristics of achievement motivation among underprivileged college students. A survey was conducted with 260060 college students, and Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) was employed to identify the types of achievement motivation among underprivileged college students. Results showed that: (1) achievement motivation levels were significantly higher among underprivileged students compared to their non-poor counterparts. Specifically, in China, underprivileged students were significantly more driven to strive for success and less inclined to avoid failure; (2) the study identified four types of achievement motivation among disadvantaged students: Optimists (high pursuit of success, low failure avoidance, accounting for 7.90 %); Self-protectors (low pursuit of success, high failure avoidance, accounting for 29.40 %); Failure Acceptors (low pursuit of success, low failure avoidance, accounting for 39.30 %); and Overstrivers (high pursuit of success, high failure avoidance, accounting for 23.40 % of the sample). Conclusion: (1) poor students are more eager to succeed than non-poor students in China; (2) Optimists and Overstrivers seem the more positive types of achievement motivation (accounting for 31.30 %).