Psychological Barriers to Participating in Scientific Research Activities of Undergraduate Students in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam

Scientific research is one of the important tasks of students at university. Encouraging students to participate in scientific research contributes greatly to improving the quality of training and student output. This study investigates psychological barriers to participating in scientific research activities of students in terms of awareness, interest and scientific research skills. The study was carried out on a sample of 206 third-year students at a number of universities in Ho Chi Minh City. Research results showed that 17.5% of students have low barriers, 68.4% have medium barriers and 14.1% have high barriers. The barriers of interest and skills are more than awareness ones, these three aspects are positively correlated. There is no statistical difference between male, female and between majors in the level of psychological barriers to participate in scientific research. In order to promote students to participate in scientific research activities, schools, lecturers and school organizations need to pay attention and have appropriate solutions to help them remove psychological barrier