2020-11-20, Mok, Sog Yee, Bakaç, Cafer, Froehlich, Laura

The utility value of an academic task can affect university students’ learning behavior and career choices. For collectivistic-oriented students, learning and career goals also matter to their families. Following expectancy-value theory, we assumed that families’ achievement-related expectations would affect collectivistic-oriented students’ utility value. We conducted a survey study with 154 international university students in Germany. We found a significant mediation effect of students’ distal utility value of their university coursework on the relationship between students’ collectivism, learning goal orientation, and motivation to follow family-oriented distal career goals, respectively. Practical implications for career counselors and university teachers are discussed.