On the Validity of Cross-Cultural Social Studies Using Student Samples

Student samples have become a widely used resource in the study of not only particular phenomena and problems within individual environments but also of their study within a cross-cultural context. A number of such studies, most often generalizing their results to the level of cultures, are illustrated in this article. In addition, the authors carry out a number of empirical tests of the generalizability of results attained on student samples in cross-cultural research. Based on the World Values Survey data, mean values of four sociologically and psychologically relevant measures are compared between national and student samples of twenty-three countries. Results suggest that the findings attained on student samples can be viewed cautiously as a good indicator of national sample rankings in cross-national comparisons.