The relationship between perceived teacher support and mathematics performance: The mediating roles of mathematics internal motivation, anxiety and self-efficacy

Several intrapersonal and external factors could affect students’ learning and performance in mathematics. This study aimed to explore the relationship between students’ perceived teacher support and mathematics performance by considering the mediating roles of mathematics self-efficacy, internal motivation, and anxiety. Multi-stage sampling was used to choose 408 students. The SEM findings suggested that the proposed model had a good fit. Additionally, there was a significant, positive relationship between perceived teacher support and mathematics performance. Moreover, perceived teacher support could explain students’ mathematics performance via the mediating roles of mathematics self-efficacy, anxiety, and internal motivation. Furthermore, mathematics self-efficacy affected the other two mediating variables and thereby influenced mathematics performance. The findings implied that mathematics performance could significantly be improved by paying especial attention to different types of teacher support and making educational interventions for increasing teachers’ supportive behaviors, which can consequently increase mathematics self-efficacy and motivation and decrease mathematics anxiety.