Gender, Rootedness, Normative Beliefs and Emigration Intentions of Slovak University Students

The aim of this article is to explore normative beliefs (descriptive, injunctive, personal, subjective), rootedness (desire for change, home/family satisfaction) and their interactions in relation to emigration intentions among university students. Binary logistic regression was used to analyse the data obtained from 375 Slovak university students (75.5% females, mean age 22.9, SD=3.0). The analysis showed that personal normative beliefs and desire for change were significantly positively associated with emigration intentions. A subjective normative belief about friends, a descriptive normative belief about family, a descriptive normative belief about students, and home/family satisfaction contributed to the probability of having emigration intentions only among females. The interaction analysis showed that a lower level of a personal normative belief among females and males, a descriptive normative belief about family among females and a subjective normative belief about friends among females increased the probability of not having emigration intentions, especially among those with a lower level of desire for change. These findings could help to understand the possibilities for preventing ‘brain drain’, especially regarding its psychological aspects.