Features of the role self-assessment of Russian and Chinese students

This paper meets the need for cross-cultural research into the role aspects of university student behaviour against the background of increasing academic migration. Students that adhere to different cultural patterns may have a different understanding of various situations arising in the teaching process and a different perception of their social role in such situations. The article analyses the level-related and structural differences in the aspects of role self-assessment depending on the socio-cultural context. The authors use the method of S. Schwartz (PVQ-40) and the authors’ questionnaire aimed at identifying the aspects of role self-assessment. The study involved 300 respondents, including 185 Chinese and 115 Russian students. We formulated a hypothesis that students from cultures which differ in terms of the “collectivism-individualism” criterium show level-related and structural differences in the aspects of role self-esteem. The analysis of value profiles allows us to establish that Chinese students are more committed to the values of collectivism compared to Russians. The aspects of role self-assessment in the two groups do not have level-related differences—however, students from China demonstrate higher self-assessments of role typicality, and it is also more important for them to meet the expectations of status reference figures—i. e., parents, teachers, and representatives of the university administration. Based on the analysis of structural differences, it is shown that perceived role typicality is an important factor of positive role self-esteem for the Chinese sample, which probably determines a greater social normativity, including in academic behaviour. Further studies of students’ role self-esteem can be aimed at correlating its structure with the motivation for academic achievements and the peculiarities of the cultural identity of students from different countries.