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 9 / 18 sentiments are first-order reflective structures [49]. In the present study, a two-step procedure was used to assess the measurement model due to the presence of a second-order structure in the current research model [51]. Measurement models were assessed using construct reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity methods. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (CA) was tested to evaluate the reliability of the model constructs. In addition, the composite reliability (CR) test was used to determine the reliability of the model constructs. Following Hair et al. (2019), model con- struct reliability was established if the values of CA and CR were more significant than 0.70 [51]. Through Table 2, it was showed that these values were over the recommendations of Hair et al. (2019) [51], which confirmed that construct reli- ability has been established in this study (i.e., ranging from 0.746 to 0.958). Based on the recommendation of Hair et al. (2019), item loadings should be over 0.708 [51]. The loading values of the study items ranged from 0.729 to 0.933, indi- cating that all remaining items are loaded strongly on their own constructions and less on the other constructs, as shown in Table 2. The findings in Table 2 indicated that the AVE value for all dimensions ranged from 0.609 to 0.860, the mini- mum acceptable AVE was 0.50 [51], demonstrating a satisfactory degree of convergent validity. The results of the data

through the CA and CR values for each dimension in Table 2 below show that PL (0.837, 0.925), EI (0.832, 0.922), TM (0.746, 0.848), Empathy (0.949, 0.958), ITE (0.921, 0.938), CE (0.923, 0.940), BME (0.922, 0.939), IEE (0.750, 0.856), and Attitudes (0.905, 0.929), Sentiments (0.903, 0.928), Concerns (0.905, 0.930), and ATIE (0.779, 0.823). Table 2 shows Construct Indicator Factor loadings Cronbach’s α CR AVE Concerns Concerns1 0.876 0.905 0.930 0.726 Concerns2 0.844 Concerns3 0.850 Concerns4 0.844 Concerns5 0.831 ATIE Attitudes 0.796 0.779 0.823 0.609 Sentiments 0.729 Concerns 0.813 Note: PL = Professional love; EI = Educational interest; TM=Teaching motivation; ITE = Inclusive teaching efficacy; CE = Collaborative efficacy; BME = Behavior management efficacy; IEE = Inclusive education efficacy; ATIE = Attitude toward inclusive education. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0321066.t002 Table 3. Discriminant validity assessment (HTMT). Construct BME CE EI ITE PL Attitudes Concerns Sentiments Empathy BME CE 0.525 EI 0.448 0.327 ITE 0.536 0.560 0.208 PL 0.240 0.339 0.571 0.282 Attitudes 0.318 0.396 0.443 0.167 0.409 Concerns 0.501 0.262 0.472 0.252 0.235 0.505 Sentiments 0.227 0.212 0.272 0.408 0.345 0.398 0.469 Empathy 0.209 0.261 0.263 0.246 0.199 0.259 0.262 0.266 Note: PL = Professional love; EI = Educational interest; ITE = Inclusive teaching efficacy; CE = Collaborative efficacy; BME = Behavior management efficacy. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0321066.t003 Table 2. (Continued)