Latent profiles of changes in elementary school students’ mathematics achievement and their influencing factors: Using growth mixture model

Abstract

This study was to identify latent profiles of changes in elementary school students’ mathematics achievement and to test whether their influencing factors had significant effects on classifying the latent profiles. Panel data (1,632 elementary school students) of the first year of 4th grade in 2018 to the third year of 6th grade in 2020 from the Jeonnam Education Longitudinal Study (JELS) were analyzed using a growth mixture model. The findings of this study were as follows: First, four distinct latent profiles were categorized as high level, medium-high level, medium-low level and low level. Second, both the initial value and change rate of each latent profile were positively significant, indicating that the mathematics achievement of the four profiles improved as they progressed through the grades, with the highest change rate for the high-level profile. Third, the main influencing factors for the latent profiles in mathematics achievement were academic self-concept, instructional attitude, parents’ academic support, and relationship with the classroom teacher. Based on the findings of this study, we proposed policy implications for improving mathematics achievement of elementary school students.