The Mediating Role of Self-Regulation in the Relationship Between Parental Attitude and Locus of Control with Academic Motivation

The study explored the mediating role of self-regulation in the relationship between parental attitude, locus of control, and academic motivation. Employing the correlational research design, the study was conducted with 885 high school students determined by random sampling method. In the study, five different data collection tools, the Personal Information Form, the Academic Motivation Scale, the Parental Attitudes Scale, the Self-Regulation Skills Scale, and the Locus of Control Scale, were used for data collection. Structural equation modeling was utilized for analysis. Accordingly, the measurement model was tested with confirmatory factor analysis. The examination of the fit coefficient for the independent model (Chi-square=4615.59, p<001) showed that the variance-covariance matrix was suitable for testing and there were significant relationships between the variables. After testing the first model, the measurement model was tested for the second model, which theoretically proposed as locus of control as the independent variable, self-regulation skill as the mediating variable and academic motivation as the criterion variable. In the first model, while the fit indices indicated that there were relationships between the variables, no mediation relationship was found when indirect effects were examined. In the study, a mediation relationship was found in the second model. The study results revealed that locus of control was not a significant long-term predictor of academic motivation after the locus of control mediator variable was added to the model. This result indicates that self-regulation skills have a mediating role in the relationship between locus of control and academic motivation.