Predictors of intention to go on to university : are these the same across cultures?

It is clear that there is differential academic achievement across cultural groups. One index of academic achievement and educational engagement is the degree to which individuals espouse an intention to continue with further education beyond school. Utilising a large scale data base (N=2917) drawn from a variety of cultural groupings (Australian, European, Aboriginal, Navajo, Middle Eastern, and Asian) attending 11 high schools in Australia and 2 high schools in United States, Personal Investment Theory (PI) was used to examine the relative power of achievement goals (mastery, performance, social and extrinsic), facilitating conditions (influences of parents, peers and teachers) and sense of self (sense of purpose, sense of reliance, positive and negative self esteem) in predicting student's intentions to go on to university. Specifically, the research reports the results of regression analyses predicting intention to complete university utilising significant predictors drawn from each of the three PI components across seven cultural groups.