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Research on science attitudes has focused mostly on teacher variables and learning environment variables. Furthermore, in the parent involvement literature, the outcome variable of interest has been mostly science achievement rather than science attitudes. Limited research is available on the joint influence of teacher and parent variables on science attitudes. This article proposes a model of parent and teacher influences on the science attitudes of eighth graders using data from the base year survey of the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling methodology for categorical data. The results show that the availability of science facilities has a significant direct effect on science experiments. Parental involvement has significant direct as well as indirect effects on science attitudes mediated through science activities and library/museum visits. Science activities have a significant direct effect on science attitudes. This study suggests that improving the quality of science instruction and science activities in schools will have implications for science education in schools and this will, in turn, indirectly affect the science attitudes of students. More importantly, the findings of this study provide concrete empirical evidence that parents play a very important role in the development of science attitudes of students. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Sci Ed 82:93–109, 1998.
George et al. (Thu,) studied this question.