Multidimensionality of parental involvement and children's mathematics achievement in Taiwan: Mediating effect of math self-efficacy

• The multidimensional model of parental involvement in mathematics was confirmed.
• The model contained three factors of parental beliefs and expectations, managerial involvement, and structural involvement.
• Parental beliefs and expectations directly influenced mathematics achievement.
• Structural involvement indirectly and positively predicted mathematics achievement via mathematics self-efficacy.
• Managerial involvement indirectly predicted mathematics achievement via mathematics self-efficacy with negative impacts.

The present study confirmed the multidimensional construct of Taiwanese parental involvement and examined the direct and indirect influences of parental involvement on students' mathematics achievement, that is, the mediating effects of math self-efficacy. Questionnaires were administered to 1286 seventh grade students in Central Taiwan, and structural equation modeling was utilized. The results indicated that the multidimensional model of parental involvement in mathematics contained three components: parental beliefs and expectations, managerial involvement (i.e., parental instruction), and structural involvement (i.e., resources parents provide for children). In addition, results suggested that parental involvement is indirectly associated with students' mathematics achievement through the mediating effects of math self-efficacy, either partially or completely. The conceptual framework and measures can contribute to future work on parenting, including research designed to map multidimensional constructs that describe parental involvement and studies that explore how parental involvement shapes school outcomes of early adolescents in mathematics through their math self-efficacy.