Students' attitude towards mathematics is affected by factors such as parental influences, teacher affective support and classroom instruction. The purpose of this research was to examine the inter-relationships between these factors and effects on attitude towards mathematics using a partial least squares-structural equation modeling approach. A survey was carried out with a sample of 318 Form Four students from Sabah, Malaysia. The questionnaire consists of four scales: Perceived Parental Influences, Teacher Affective Support, Classroom Instruction and Attitude towards Mathematics. IBM SPSS 19.0 and Smart PLS 2.0 were used to analyze the measurement and structural models. The results showed that with the exclusion of some indicators from the scales, the measurement models showed acceptable reliability and validity. The structural model has moderate predictive relevance but the inter-relationships of the constructs in the structural model were significant. Teacher affective support and classroom instruction predict attitude towards mathematics more than parental influences.

The research investigated the effect of socioeconomic status, gender, perceived parental influences, teacher affective support, classroom instruction and previous achievement on students' attitude towards mathematics. The comparison of these effects was also done between urban and rural school students. This research employed a cross-sectional quantitative design based on a structural equation modelling approach. The sample consisted of 808 students from ten secondary schools in Sabah, three of which were urban and seven were rural schools. Findings showed positive relationships exist between perceived parental influences (r = .231), teacher affective support (r = .242), classroom instruction (r = .439), and previous achievement (r = .284) with students' attitude towards mathematics. The multigroup analysis for urban and rural students showed similar results as the whole student group. However, for urban students, classroom instruction (r = 0.352) and previous achievement (r =-0.363) had the greatest impact on attitude towards mathematics. For rural students, the highest impact on attitude towards mathematics was from classroom instruction (r = 0.452) and teacher affective support (r = 0.246). The least impact for both groups was perceived parental influence. This study implied that factors affected students' attitude towards mathematics in rural and urban secondary students are different.

A strong mathematics background is essential for job opportunities and advancement in a developing country like Malaysia. It gives students the confidence and ability to solve problems and become rational as well as critical in their thinking. However, Malaysian students’ mathematics achievement is relatively low as compared to other school subjects. This difference is more pronounced in rural schools. Previous studies have highlighted the relationship between students’ attitude and achievement in mathematics. Hence, it is important to investigate the contributing factors that affect students’ attitudes towards mathematics. This book is adapted and modified from a PhD thesis entitled: “Factors affecting students’ attitude towards mathematics in Sabah, Malaysia” of the first author. In this book, the relationships among perceived parental influences, teacher affective support, classroom instruction, gender, SES, students’ previous achievement and students’ attitude towards mathematics are portrayed using Structural Equation Modeling approach. Findings from the study can be utilised to understand the complex interplay of relationships that form students’ attitude towards mathematics, including factors that can be addressed by the classroom mathematics teacher. This book will be useful for secondary school mathematics teachers, researchers, school administrators, students, and policymakers.