Pre-service teachers’ empathy and attitudes toward inclusive education—The chain mediating role of teaching motivation and inclusive education efficacy

PLOS One | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0321066 April 29, 2025 10 / 18 that the Cronbach’s alpha, outer loading, CA, CR, and AVE values for all study variables meet the suggested threshold. The study investigated the discriminant validity using the heterotrait-monotrait (HTMT) correlation criterion. Discriminant validity was confirmed if the HTMT result was less than or equal to 0.85, as Franke and Sarstedt (2019) recommended [57]. The data from Table 3, the discriminant validity assessment, shows that HTMT is all less than 0.85. Therefore, the discriminant validity of the measurement model meets the criteria. Structural model A diagnosis of the covariance of the model has preceded the analysis of the structural model. The data show that the internal VIF values of all constructs are less than 3.3, so there is no colinearity in this study [56]. Following the recommen- dations made by Hair et al. (2019) [51], a bootstrapping technique with 10000 resamples was used to evaluate the struc- tural models. The standard evaluation criteria include statistical significance and correlation of path coefficients, coefficient of determination (R2), assessed effect size (f2), and PLS Predict analysis. The results of this study’s direct and indirect hypotheses are shown in Table 4 and Fig 2. This study has six direct hypotheses and three indirect hypotheses. From the results of Table 4, empathy has a positive effect on pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward inclusive education (β = 0.158, t = 3.939, p < 0.01, LL = 0.082, UL = 0.236), empathy has

a positive effect on pre-service teachers’ teaching motivation (β=0.244, t = 4.650, p < 0.01, LL = 0.142, UL = 0.343), and empathy has a positive effect on pre-service teachers’ inclusive education efficacy (β=0.188, t = 4.121, p < 0.01, LL = 0.098, UL = 0.281). Thus, H1, H2, and H5 were supported. Teaching motivation has a positive effect on pre- service teachers’ attitudes toward inclusive education (β=0.333, t = 6.911, p < 0.01, LL = 0.239, UL = 0.426), and teaching motivation has a positive effect on pre-service teachers’ inclusive education efficacy (β=0.348, t = 7.728, p < 0.01, LL = 0.255, UL = 0.434). Thus, H3 and H8 were supported. Inclusive education efficacy has a positive effect on pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward inclusive education (β=0.270, t = 5.348, p < 0.01, LL = 0.167, UL = 0.364), thus H6 was supported. Teaching motivation mediates the relationship between empathy and pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward inclusive education (β=0.081, t = 3.756, p < 0.01, LL = 0.023, UL = 0.090), thus H4 was supported. Inclusive education efficacy mediates the relationship between empathy and pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward inclusive education (β=0.051, t = 3.030, p < 0.01, LL = 0.045, UL = 0.132), thus H7 was supported. Teaching motiva- tion and inclusive education efficacy together play a chain mediating role in the relationship between empathy and pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward inclusive education (β=0.023, t = 2.816, p < 0.01, LL = 0.011, UL = 0.042), thus

H9 was supported. This indicates that all nine hypotheses were supported. Then, the coefficient of determination (R2) Table 4. Hypotheses testing. Hypothesis Relationship β SE t p LL UL R2 f2 VIF H1 Empathy→ATIE 0.158 0.040 3.939 0.000 0.082 0.236 0.329 0.034 1.107 H2 Empathy→TM 0.244 0.052 4.650 0.000 0.142 0.343 0.059 0.064 1.000 H3 TM→ATIE 0.333 0.048 6.911 0.000 0.239 0.426 0.137 1.121 H4 Empthy→TM→ATIE 0.081 0.022 3.756 0.000 0.023 0.090 H5 Empathy→IEE 0.188 0.046 4.121 0.000 0.098 0.281 0.188 0.041 1.063 H6 IEE→ATIE 0.270 0.051 5.348 0.000 0.167 0.364 0.089 1.232 H7 Empathy→IEE→ATIE 0.051 0.017 3.030 0.002 0.045 0.132 H8 TM→IEE 0.348 0.045 7.728 0.000 0.255 0.434 0.140 1.063 H9 Empathy→T- M→IEE→ATIE 0.023 0.008 2.816 0.005 0.011 0.042 Note: ATIE = Attitudes toward inclusive education; TM = Teaching motivation; IEE = Inclusive education efficacy. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0321066.t004