The comparison of place attachment, stress in life and academic motivation of local and nonlocal students in public universities ‎

Nowadays, many students move away from their hometown to continue higher education and face a variety of problems. The current study is done with the aim of comparison of the place attachment, stress in life & academic motivation of local and nonlocal students in public universities. The research method was descriptive and the design was ex post facto. The population of this study was all male and female students studying in public universities of Tehran during the academic year of 2016-2017. The sample consist 195 local & nonlocal students were selected by convenient and voluntary method. For data collection, place attachment scale by Williams and Roggenbuck (1989), Harter's classroom affect and motivational scale (1998) & Student-Life Stress Inventory by Gadzella & Baloglu (2001) were used. The results of MANOVA test showed that there was significant difference in place attachment (F=11.78, p<.001), stress in students’ life (F=4.3, p<.001) and internal academic motivation (F=3.36, p<.001) but there was no significant difference in scores of external academic motivation between local and nonlocal students (F=1.71, p>.1). Providing conditions for students to study in higher education in their hometown or preparing them at the beginning of entrance to the university play an effective role to decrease the stress of living in dorm & increase the academic outcomes in students.