Children's and parents' perceptions of parental support and their effects on children's achievement motivation and achievement in mathematics : A longitudinal predictive mediation model

Based on Eccles et al.'s expectancy-value model, this study focused on parent- and child-perceived parental support (parental control, warmth and structure) in mathematics, and their effects on mathematics-related achievement motivation (competence beliefs and intrinsic value) and achievement, controlling for previously reported achievement, achievement motivation, intelligence, and gender. Data were analyzed of 457 children and their parents, which had been gathered in the time period from the first to the seventh grade. Structural equation analyses showed that parent-perceived control negatively predicted competence beliefs and achievement in mathematics (the latter mediated by competence beliefs). Parent-perceived warmth had an indirect positive effect on mathematics-related competence beliefs and intrinsic value (mediated by child-perceived warmth) as well as achievement (mediated by both child-perceived warmth and competence beliefs). Parent-perceived structure, mediated by child-perceived structure, positively predicted the intrinsic value of mathematics.