• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.389-395
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to examine dental hygiene students' achievement motivation and factors affecting dental hygiene students' achievement motivation by the general characteristics of subjects in this study. The subjects in this study were 450 who were selected by convenience sampling from three different three-year-course colleges. After a survey was conducted, the answer sheets from 421 respondents were analyzed. The collected data were analyzed, which made use of t-test, ANOVA and Kruscal-Wallis test. The findings of the study were as follows. 1. The dental hygiene students investigated got 3.34 in achievement motivation. They got the highest score of 3.78 in the item 'I perform what I have to do with a sense of responsibility.' and they got the lowest score of 2.67 in the item 'I like to do something risky.' 2. Concerning links between their general characteristics and achievement motivation, the students whose academic year was higher(p<0.001) and who had more clinical practice experiences (p<0.01) were better motivated than their counterparts. As to connections between achievement motivation and expected post-graduation length of service, those who replied that they planned to find another job after getting married were better motivated(p<0.05). Regarding relationship between achievement motivation and a will to work abroad, the students who had a stronger will to work abroad were better motivated. 3. As a result of checking the influence of their general characteristics on achievement motivation, stronger motivation was found among the students whose academic year was higher(p<0.01), who intended to work until marriage(p<0.01) and who didn't plan to keep working after marriage(p<0.05) when the other variables were controlled. Therefore dental hygiene students should be taught to look at things positively when they enter college, and they should also be educated to become progressive to keep working for their lifetime instead of just getting a temporary job after graduation.