PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT, SELF-EFFICACY, SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING AND STUDENTS' ATTITUDE TOWARDS SCIENCE: A PATH ANALYSIS

This quantitative research study determined the causal relationship of interconnected variables particularly, parental involvement, self-efficacy, self-directed learning and attitude towards science. A descriptive-correlational research design was employed with path analysis in the treatment of data. Two hundred sixty-three grade 10 students of the secondary schools in Banaybanay Distict were selected as respondents through stratified random sampling technique. The study used four adapted research instruments to measure the variables, namely:  Parental Involvement Mechanisms Measurement, Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Children (SEQ-C), Self-Directed Learning Instrument (SDLI) and Attitude Towards Science Inventory Survey (ATSI). Mean, Pearson Product Moment Correlation, Multiple Regression Analysis and Path Analysis were applied to treat the data. The results showed that students’ parental involvement is evident while both students’ self-directed learning and self-efficacy were manifested and students’ positive attitude towards science is evident. Among the independent variables, only the self-directed learning is statistically significant predictor of students’ attitude towards science. Furthermore, the best fit model indicates that self-directed learning and self-efficacy have significant effect to attitude towards science. While, parental involvement and self-efficacy have significant influence to attitude towards science through self-directed learning. Moreover, parental involvement also has significant effect to attitude towards science through self-efficacy. This study suggests that students should enhance their self-directed learning abilities as this foster positive attitude towards science. It is further recommended to recognize the interconnectedness of self-directed learning, self-efficacy, and parental involvement to maximize their combined impact on students' attitudes towards Science.