Math Achievement in Early Adolescence

Abstract

Contributions of parental involvement in educational pursuits as well as math teachers' classroom behavior to students' motivation and performance in math were investigated. By the end of the first school term, 365 Slovene eighth graders reported on their parents' academic involvement (pressure, support, and help) and their math teachers' behavior in the classroom (support, academic press, and mastery goal). During the second term, the students filled-in the questionnaires on their motivational beliefs about math, and at the end of the school year, their final math grade was obtained from school records. Both of the social contexts significantly predicted students' outcomes. Students' perceptions of math teachers' behavior were predictive of both motivational beliefs and achievement in math, over and above the acount of students' evaluations of their parents' involvement. Furthermore, parental academic pressure and support were directly (negatively) related to students' math grades. The contributions of parental pressure, math teachers' academic press, and teachers' mastery goal on math achievement were mediated through the students' self-efficacy in this school course.