Pathways of parental involvement through students’ motivational beliefs to science achievement

This study aimed to examine the mediating effects of motivational beliefs in the relations between parental involvement and science achievement. Three types of motivational beliefs, namely, self-concept, intrinsic value, and utility value were addressed based on the Expectancy-Value Theory model. A representative national sample from Taiwan of 5042 eighth-grade students with an average age of 14.2 years was examined. The results indicated that self-concept and utility value can mediate the effects of parental involvement on science achievement, whereas intrinsic value does not have such a mediating effect. These findings provide empirical evidence revealing the prominent role of parental involvement in students’ science achievement through a motivational mechanism.