Perceived teacher support profiles and mathematics engagement, mathematics anxiety, mathematics attitude: A latent profile analysis approach

Background The critical role of perceived teacher support in mathematics learning has been widely recognized, but individual student differences have often been overlooked in previous studies. Methods This study adopts a person-centered approach to study the perceived teacher support in the process of mathematics learning, uses latent profile analysis to classify 1314 students, and uses one-way analysis of variance to explore the differences between students with different profiles. Further, a mediation model is established to explore the relationship between different perceived teacher support profiles and and mathematics engagement, mathematics anxiety, and mathematics attitude. Results Latent profile analysis identified three profiles: low (5.78%), medium (44.29%), and high perceived teacher support (49.93%). There were no significant differences in gender or grade among students with different profiles. But they show significant differences in mathematics engagement, mathematics anxiety, and mathematics attitude. Further analysis revealed that there are differences in behavioral engagement, cognitive engagement, emotional engagement, classroom anxiety, learning motivation, and learning strategies. The mediation effect analysis showed that students with higher perceived teacher support exhibited stronger mathematics attitudes, which in turn increased their mathematics engagement. However, mathematics anxiety did not serve as a mediating factor. Conclusion The study showed that individual differences in perceived teacher support affect students’ mathematics engagement mathematics anxiety, and mathematics attitudes. Students who perceive a higher level of teacher support show a more positive attitude toward mathematics, which promotes mathematics engagement. This study provides empirical evidence for teachers to implement personalized support.