Parental Support for Learning and High School Students’ Academic Motivation and Persistence in Mathematics

• In Event: Roundtable Session 45
  In Roundtable Session: Mathematics and Motivation

Abstract

This study tested a model where parental support for learning at home was hypothesized to predict personal goal orientations and personal goal orientations were predicted to increase persistence in math classrooms. The sample consisted of 1534 grade-nine students from three ethnically-diverse high schools. Students’ perceptions of parental support for learning significantly predicted their personal mastery and performance approach goal orientations which in turn accounted for a substantial proportion of the variance in self-reported mathematics persistence in the classroom. These findings suggest that parents’ support for learning in the home might have a strong influence on the students’ academic motivation and persistence in the classroom, which in the long run may improve mathematics achievement.

Authors

• Sarita Yogesh Shukla, Western Washington University

• Angela Kristi Tombari, University of Kentucky

• Fred Danner, University of Kentucky