Effect of the motivation among dental technology students on their choice of a major program, their satisfaction with it, and their adaptation to university life

Methods: A total of 204 (90.7%) self-administered questionnaires were collected from den- tal technology students of K University in Gangwon-do for the final analysis.Using IBM SPSS Statistics version 21.0 (IBM), technical analysis, t-test, ANOVA, correlation analysis, and linear regression analysis were performed.Results: In regard to motivation for major choice, 'intrinsic motivation (3.48)' was slightly higher than 'extrinsic motivation (3.47)', in regards to major satisfaction, 'relationship satisfaction (4.14)' was the highest, in regards to adaptation to university life, 'social adjustment factors (3.79)' was the highest.Of the factors of satisfaction in major on the adaptation to university life, 'subject satisfaction factors (p<0.05)' and 'perception satisfaction factor (p<0.05)' were shown to have statistically significant relationships, and the explanatory power of the model was shown to be 44.6%. Conclusion:The results of this study indicate that dental technology students are highly motivated in selecting their major and show strong motivation to adapt to their major studies after admission.However, they would benefit from job shadowing opportunities with dental technologist and career lectures through various extracurricular programs starting from their first year to better facilitate their transition and future career paths.