Study abroad is becoming an increasingly important part of a college education. The present study investigated the psychological factors predicting college students’ study abroad intentions, including students’ achievement motivation, neophilia, migrant personality and desire to help, by comparing students with high to those with low study abroad intentions. These personality factors related to themes found in mission statements of programs taking students to other countries for brief trips or longer studies. The relative importance of these factors was investigated with a sample of 431 largely first-year undergraduates enrolled in a large introductory psychology class. Results showed that students with high intentions to study abroad had higher scores on all the factors being studied, as hypothesized. These findings might be applied in promoting study abroad in institutions and in developing programs to better fit student interests.

This study examines intentions to take protective action against peer sexual harassment and abuse (PSHA). The theory of planned behavior (TPB) proposes that attitudes about protective action, perceptions of what others would think about doing this (subjective norms), and behavioral control would be important predictors. A total of 1,531 Chinese secondary school students (769 boys and 762 girls) from Hong Kong were surveyed to test this model. Results showed that the TPB model was predictive for girls, but only subjective norms and behavioral control significantly predicted boys’ intentions to protect themselves. Results supported the influence of subjective norms and perceived behavioral control on youths’ intentions to reject PSHA. These factors may be useful in guiding the development of an educational program for prevention of PSHA.

(1) Background: The Teacher and student community plays an important role in students’ academic development. Previous studies showed that students’ academic success is influenced by their social relations in school. This study extended to use a mix of social network analysis and survey methodology to understand how eighth-grade students’ network and perceived teacher’s support relate to their academic motivation. (2) Methods: A total of 95 eighth graders with the same teacher in a middle school in the southeastern United States were recruited. (3) Results: Results showed that the number of friendship nominations received (i.e., in-degree), degree centrality and betweenness centrality significantly correlated with higher academic motivation. In addition, a regression model analysis showed that perceived teacher’s support, together with more friendship nominations, predicted higher academic motivation.