Abstract
Purpose. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of family process factors as perceived by seventh- and eighth-grade students to mathematics achievement among middle school students of different ethnic, gender, and economic background in a large school district in southern California. The family process factors included: (a) parental academic expectations of student's capability; (b) parental involvement in school; (c) parental interest in school; (d) family and emotional support of the student; (e) mother's attitude toward student's abilities in mathematics; and (f) father's attitude toward student's abilities in mathematics Methodology. The design of the study was correlational in nature. The sample included 2,078 seventh- and eighth-grade students. The ethnic-racial breakdown of the sample was 63 percent Latino American, 18.6 percent European American, and 11.5 percent African American. The demographic information was obtained from the district files. Students completed the survey about family process factors during their mathematics class. The return rate of usable surveys was 77 percent. Family process factors were measured using scales developed by Hoge, Smit, and Crist (1997) and Fennema and Sherman (1976). Mathematics achievement was operationalized as the SAT-9 total mathematics score. Findings. (1) Males and females did not score differently on the SAT-9 mathematics score, but females scored higher on all family process factors. (2) The lower economic group scored lower on the SAT-9 mathematics score, parental expectations, parental involvement, parental support, and father's attitude scores. (3) On the SAT-9 score, European American students scored higher than Latino American students, who scored higher than African American students. (4) On family process factors, there were no differences between Latino American students and African American students, but both groups showed differences when compared to European American students. (5) Stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that parental expectation was the strongest predictor of SAT-9 mathematics scores for European American and Latino American students, and the second strongest for African American students. (6) For African American students, mother's attitude towards mathematics was the strongest predictor of SAT-9 mathematics scores. Discussion and conclusions. The findings were discussed in the light of existing literature on mathematics achievement and its relationship to gender, economic background, and ethnicity. Recommendations involved suggestions that parental involvement as well as teacher training programs recognize the different needs of various ethnic groups in facilitating the mathematics achievement of students. Recommendations were also made about future studies.