Examining Motivation to Study Abroad Among Japanese Undergraduates

Abstract

Attempts to develop an instrument (s) for measuring study abroad motivation have often lack robust evidence of reliability, and have not reliably shown the capacity to distinguish the motivational profiles of students who choose to engage in study abroad and those who do not. This study is an initial attempt to address these issues. A Japanese version of Anderson and Lawton’s (2015) Motivation to Study Abroad (MSA) scale was operationalized with Japanese undergraduates (N = 251). Rasch rating scale modeling indicated the MSA scales are reliable but generally too easily endorsed. While significant differences were observed between schools and gender for each of the four MSA scales, no significant difference between sojourners and non-sojourners was detected. Finally, MSA scale scores were not capable of predicting which students would study abroad and which would not. Implications and future research directions are offered.