This study was to analyze the effects of parental educational level (P.EDU), science attitude (ATT),and valuing science (VAL) on science performance after establishing gender invariance in a representative sampleof the Taiwanese eighth grade population drawn from the2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). The official TIMSS five plausible valuesin scoring science performance were used as out comevariables, while independent variables were collected from student questionnaires. The effects of P.EDU, ATT, andVAL on science performance were estimated by a multi-group structural equation model. Results from multi-group analysis supported gender invariance. After establishing gender invariance, a considerable effect was detected between P.EDU and Taiwanese eighth grade science per-formance that was indirectly related through ATT and VAL with the direct effects being stronger than the indirecteffects, and the indirect effects of ATT being stronger than VAL in both genders. Prospective impediments to multi-group invariance are suggested to be utilized when com-paring different groups

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• Gender Differences in Factors Affecting Science Performance of Eighth Grade Taiwan Students