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Latent mathematics attitude profiles among eighth-grade students: associations with school belonging and bullying
1Faculty of Education, Afyon Kocatepe University, Afyonkarahisar, Türkiye.
Introduction:
This study examined heterogeneity in students' mathematics attitudes and the associations of perceived school belonging, bullying victimization, gender, and home educational resources with profile membership.
Methods:
TIMSS 2023 Türkiye data included 4,925 eighth-grade students (LPA analytic N = 4,820; three-step analytic N = 4,739). Latent profile analysis used the three official TIMSS derived scale scores for liking mathematics, confidence in mathematics, and valuing mathematics, with equal indicator variances across profiles and within-profile covariances fixed at zero. Model selection jointly considered fit, profile size, classification quality, substantive distinctiveness, and covariance-specification sensitivity. Associations with profile membership were examined using design-adjusted, classification-error-corrected three-step analyses.
Results:
A five-profile solution was retained as a parsimonious descriptive classification: Low Overall / Very Low Confidence, Low Liking-Value / Relatively Higher Confidence, Slightly Below-Average, Positive, and Highly Positive. Perceived school belonging was the most consistent correlate of profile membership, F(4, 68) = 47.74, p < 0.001, and home educational resources also differentiated profiles, F(4, 68) = 15.61, p < 0.001. Gender showed a smaller omnibus association, F(4, 68) = 2.88, p = 0.029, whereas bullying victimization did not differentiate profiles after simultaneous adjustment for the other covariates, F(4, 68) = 1.78, p = 0.143. When perceived school belonging was omitted in a sensitivity model, bullying victimization did differentiate profiles, F(4, 68) = 6.02, p < 0.001.
Discussion:
Mathematics attitudes varied mainly in overall level, with limited configurational heterogeneity among the two lowest-attitude profiles. The change in the conditional association with bullying after omitting school belonging does not establish mediation or causal ordering.
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