Early Childhood Research Quarterly 55 (2021) 242–251

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Early Childhood Research Quarterly

Preschool teachers’ self-efficacy, classroom process quality, and

children’s social skills: A multilevel mediation analysis
Bi Ying Hu a , Yuanhua Li a , Chuang Wang a , Huiping Wu b,∗ , Ginny Vitiello c
a
Faculty of Education, University of Macau, People’s Republic of China
b
Fujian Normal University, People’s Republic of China
c
University of Virginia, United States

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This study examined the interconnections among preschool teachers’ self-efficacy, classroom process
Received 4 May 2020 quality and children’s social skill development based on a randomly selected sample of 5628 preschool
Received in revised form 5 December 2020 children in a Chinese preschool context. Given the nested data structure, multilevel mediation modeling
Accepted 9 December 2020
was utilized to investigate whether teachers’ self-efficacy, specifically teachers’ self-efficacy for instruc-
Available online 31 December 2020
tional strategies (EIS), classroom management (ECM) and student engagement (ESE), exerted indirect
effects on children’s social skills through the mediation of classroom process quality measured by Pianta,
Keywords:
Hamre and LaParo’s (2008) Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) in three domains—emotional
Teachers’ self-efficacy
Classroom process
support (ES), classroom organization (CO) and instructional support (IS). Findings showed that CO is the
Social skills only robust mediating mechanism between teachers’ self-efficacy and children’s social skills, indicating
Chinese preschools the importance of teachers’ CO in developing Chinese children’s social skills. Specifically, teachers’ CO
acts as a positive mediator between teachers’ ECM and children’s social skills, but a negative media-
tor between teachers’ ESE and children’s social skills. This interesting negative mediation of teachers’ CO
between teachers’ ESE and children’s social skills offers insights into Chinese preschool classroom dynam-
ics and child development. Findings and their implications are discussed in light of Chinese sociocultural
features.
© 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction fostered in alignment with the mainstream principles of collec-

Social skills include a range of individuals’ competencies,
including emotion regulation, the ability to construct and main-
tain relationships, effortful control, and executive functioning
(McClelland et al., 2007), which begin to appear in the second
year of children’s lives (Jeon, McCartney, Richard, & Johnson, 2020).
Many kindergarten teachers believe that social skills are more
important than academic skills for young children (Hustedt, Buell,
Hallam, & Pinder, 2018). Long-term effects of children’s early
social skills on later socioemotional functioning, academics, phys-
ical and mental health have been reported in previous studies
(Berhenke, Miller, Brown, Seifer, & Dickstein, 2011; Djambazova-
Popordanoska, 2016; Housman, 2017; Jeon et al., 2020).
Children’s social skills are particularly important educational
outcomes in Chinese society. In China, children’s social skills are
∗ Corresponding author at: College of Mathematics and Informatics, Fujian Normal
University, University Town, Fuzhou, Fujian Province, People’s Republic of China.
E-mail address: hpwu168@163.com (H. Wu).
tivism, Confucianism, and group cohesiveness (Chen, Cen, Li, &
He, 2005; Pearson & Rao, 2003). Preschoolers are expected to
learn social skills that benefit whole-group harmony (Chen et al.,
2005). In classrooms, children are supposed to behave in confor-
mity with prosocial values, act disciplined, be obedient to teachers,
and show good manners toward others (Chen & French, 2008; Zhou,
Eisenberg, Wang, & Reiser, 2004). Children who do not develop
these skills are viewed as less competent by teachers and peers,
displaying greater adjustment difficulties in later childhood (Chen,
Chen, Li, & Wang, 2009).
With the spread of China’s two-child policy, coupled with high
maternal employment, Chinese society is poised for an expanded
birth rate and more children entering the early childhood system
(Hu, Fan, Wu, LoCasale-Crouch, & Song, 2019). This is leading to
higher expectations for Early Childhood Education (ECE) quality.
Accordingly, the central government has issued several national
plans to reform ECE by improving program quality (Ministry of
Education of People’s Republic of China [MOE], 2018). As China
seeks to increase ECE quality, it is critical to understand how teacher

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2020.12.001
0885-2006/© 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
B.Y. Hu et al.
and classroom characteristics are associated with the development
of social skills among Chinese preschoolers.
Extant research findings have demonstrated that quality ECE
positively affects children’s cognitive (Barnett & Frede, 2017;
Hatfield, Burchinal, Pianta, & Sideris, 2016) and social achievement
(Aguitar, Aguitar, Cadima, Correia, & Fialho, 2019; Broekhuizen,
Mokrova, Burchinal, Garrett-Peters, & Family Life Project Key
Investigators, 2016) from both short-term and long-term perspec-
tives. It is widely accepted in the ECE field that quality can be
divided into two components, structural and process quality. Pro-
cess quality refers to the quality mainly reflected in teacher–child
and peer interactions during academic and social exchanges (Hu
et al., 2017). Empirical studies in both Western and Chinese
preschool contexts similarly found that ECE process quality pos-
itively associates with children’s social and academic performance
(Hatfield et al., 2016; Hu et al., 2017; Hu, Fan, Gu, & Yang, 2016;
Pianta, Downer, & Hamre, 2016;).
Teachers’ personal characteristics, such as self-efficacy, are
important determinants for ECE process quality reflected in class-
room interactions (Pianta, La Paro, Payne, Cox, & Bradley, 2002).
Teachers’ self-efficacy “sets the tone” for high-quality classroom
processes (Zee & Koomen, 2016, p. 981). It has been suggested
that teachers’ self-efficacy might influence student-level outcomes,
including academic achievement, learning motivation and socio-
emotional competence (Caprara, Barbaranelli, Steca, & Malone,
2006), although only a few studies have examined this to date (Guo,
Piasta, Justice, & Kaderavek, 2010; Guo, Connor, Yang, Roehrig, &
Morrison, 2012).
Despite the fact that researchers have proposed the poten-
tial for teachers’ self-efficacy to explain student-level outcome
variance, the mechanisms that bridge the association between
teachers’ self-efficacy and student outcomes has scarcely been
studied (Zee & Koomen, 2016). To explore this aspect of teach-
ers’ self-efficacy, the current study aims to investigate the
triadic relations among preschool teachers’ self-efficacy, classroom
processes, and children’s social skills. In this way, we investi-
gate a key mechanism—classroom processes (mainly reflected
in teacher-child interactions)—through which preschool teachers’
self-efficacy may be leveraged to improve children’s social skills.
Importantly, the current study makes contributions to both the-
ory and practice. Theoretically, this work will help develop a fuller
understanding of significant classroom process mechanisms con-
necting teachers’ self-efficacy and children’s social outcomes. In
practice, we propose ways for teachers to enhance teacher–child
interactions and to promote children’s social skill within diverse
sociocultural backgrounds.
2. Theoretical background
In general, children’s social skills are reflected in their acceptable
and effective social interactions with others (Pearson & Rao, 2003).
Based on this socioecological perspective of child social develop-
ment, Chen and French (2008) proposed a theoretical framework
suggesting that children’s participation in social interactions, the
social responses and evaluations they receive, as well as their social
development are guided by the customs and norms highly val-
ued within their society. This makes it important to explore how
preschool classroom experiences are associated with social devel-
opment in diverse sociocultural contexts, like China, that display
more collectivist values.
China’s group-oriented social norms lead teachers to promote
obedience to authority, group well-being, and polite manners
over individualism. Thus, teachers mostly organize highly regi-
mented classroom activities, exhibiting comparatively high-level
control and order (Zhou, Lam, & Chan, 2012). Traditional Chinese
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Early Childhood Research Quarterly 55 (2021) 242–251
preschool teachers tend to encourage children’s orderly but passive
engagement in well-planned activities, with few considerations of
children’s personal interests, choices or ideas (Rao, Ng, & Pearson,
2010). These special Chinese contextual features may be relevant
to the current investigation into the relations among teachers’ self-
efficacy, classroom process, and children’s social skills.
2.1. Teachers’ self-efficacy
Teachers’ self-efficacy is defined as “teachers’ beliefs of their
abilities of planning and practicing courses necessary for complet-
ing specific teaching tasks in certain subjects” (Tschannen-Moran,
Hoy, & Hoy, 1998, p. 207). For years, teachers’ self-efficacy has been
regarded as one of the fundamental psychological resources for
teachers’ classroom practice (Klassen, Tze, Betts, & Gordon, 2011).
If teachers hold consistent high-level self-efficacy, they are more
likely to provide students with sensitive support, inspiring stu-
dents’ cognitive processing and engagement in classroom activities
(Zee & Koomen, 2016).
In the current study, Zee and Koomen’s (2016) theoretical
framework of the Heuristic model of teacher self-efficacy was adopted
to guide construction of the hierarchical mediation model. This
framework suggests that teachers’ self-efficacy predicts variances
in classroom processes (Woolfolk Hoy, Hoy, & Davis, 2009). Specif-
ically, according to the Heuristic model, teachers’ self-efficacy is
hypothesized to influence their classroom interactions with chil-
dren through three major domains, including emotional support,
classroom organization, and instructional support (CLASS-PreK;
Pianta, La Paro, & Hamre, 2008). Teachers with higher self-efficacy
feel more confident that they can support children’s development
through their interactions with children, leading them to engage
in more positive, supportive, and sensitive interactions (Barni,
Danioni, & Benevene, 2019). In turn, these classroom interactional
features influence students’ classroom adjustment, including the
development of social skills (Woolfolk Hoy et al., 2009; Zee &
Koomen, 2016).
2.2. Teacher–child interactions
Classroom processes are identified as interactional patterns
between teachers and students that are influential for students’
outcomes (Mashburn et al., 2008). We adopted the Teaching through
Interactions framework to guide our conceptualization of impor-
tant aspects of classroom process quality (Hamre et al., 2013).
This framework concentrates on teachers’ classroom interactional
behaviors in three domains: Emotional Support, Classroom Organi-
zation, and Instructional Support. Students who have experienced
high-quality interactions tend to show better social skills (Hu et al.,
2017; Mashburn et al., 2008; Siekkinen et al., 2013).
2.3. Connections between teachers’ self-efficacy and classroom
teacher–child interaction
A positive relation exists between teachers’ self-efficacy and
their teaching practices. Teachers’ self-efficacy longitudinally pre-
dicts classroom quality (Holzberger, Philipp, & Kunter, 2013;
Künsting, Neuber, & Lipowsky, 2016). A number of studies have
linked positive self-efficacy beliefs to teachers’ provision of warm
and safe classroom climate, decreased use of coercive discipline,
greater reliance on positive behavior management techniques, and
use of more innovative and effective instructional strategies (Guo
et al., 2010; Hascher & Hagenauer, 2016; Künsting et al., 2016;
Shoulders & Krei, 2015). In sum, past findings support the idea
that teachers’ self-efficacy is related to teachers’ emotional support,
classroom organization, and instructional support.
B.Y. Hu et al.
2.4. Classroom teacher–child interaction and children’s social
skills
Evidence shows that classroom teacher-child interaction has
close associations with students’ social outcomes. Mashburn et al.
(2008) concluded from a study of 671 pre-K classrooms that teach-
ers’ classroom emotional support was positively associated with
children’s social skills. Moreover, Curby, Brock, and Hamre (2013)
demonstrated that the consistency of teachers’ emotional support
across time significantly predicts children’s better gains in social
skills. In summary, teachers’ consistent warmth and sensitivity
make children feel more confident in their capabilities of sensing
others’ emotions, which, in turn, result in children’s better social
skills (Curby et al., 2013).
Teachers’ effective classroom organization and proactive disci-
pline can help students acquire a sense of responsibility and learn
how to foster self-control (Gordon, 2001). Based on 40 years of
research, Skiba, Ormiston, Martinez, and Cummings (2016) con-
cluded teachers’ strong classroom organization helps students
focus on their tasks and decrease their disruptive behaviors. In
a meta-analysis, Korpershoek et al. (2016) found a significantly
positive but small association between teachers’ classroom man-
agement and children’s social development. Empirically, evidence
supports the idea that students’ self-regulatory and social skills
are linked to teachers’ efforts to optimize classroom organizational
climates (Yerdelen & Sungur, 2019).
Only a few studies have exclusively examined the power of
teachers’ instructional support in predicting children’s social out-
comes. Past research suggested that children in classrooms led
by teachers who display higher levels of instructional support
showed greater empathy and less disruptive behaviors in class-
rooms (Siekkinen et al., 2013). Teachers’ instructional support, as
an aspect of teacher–child interactions, may also have relevance to
children’s social outcomes (Howes et al., 2008).
2.5. Teacher–child interactions as a mediator
Given evidence supporting the association between teachers’
self-efficacy and children’s social outcomes (Zee & Koomen, 2016),
many researchers have proposed a more nuanced mechanism to
help understand through which paths teachers’ self-efficacy might
be associate with variations in students’ outcomes. As conceptual-
ized in the Heuristic Model of Teachers’ Self-efficacy (Zee & Koomen,
2016), teacher–child interactions function as the bridge between
teachers’ self-efficacy and classroom-level child outcomes. Empir-
ical findings are limited in terms of this proposed cross-level
mediation. Until now, only Guo et al. (2012) has affirmed that
highly efficacious teachers tended to create positive interactional
environments in classrooms, which were, in turn, associated with
children’s better performance in literacy.
Upon reviewing relevant literature, we conclude that several
gaps exist in the research concerning the mechanism through
which teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs connect with children’s social
development. First, prior studies have not provided direct tests
of whether teachers’ self-efficacy is associated with children’s
social outcomes through teacher–child interactions. Second, a
similar mediating mechanism has yet to be examined in ECE con-
texts and in a collectivism-based society, like China. Furthermore,
multilevel methodologies have not been widely incorporated in
similar analyses to explore whether the variance among differ-
ent classroom-level variables can explain student-level outcome
variability. Therefore, the current study is designed to fulfill the the-
oretical, contextual and methodological gaps in previous research
by investigating the indirect effect of teachers’ self-efficacy on
children’s social outcomes, mediated by teacher–child interactions
measured in terms of teachers’ emotional support, classroom orga-
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Early Childhood Research Quarterly 55 (2021) 242–251
nization, and instructional support. Specially, we attempt to answer
the following research question in present study: Do teacher–child
interactions mediate the relation between teachers’ self-efficacy
and children’s social skills?
3. Method
3.1. Participants
Participants included 5628 preschoolers (2929 girls and 2699
boys) and their lead teachers recruited from 180 classrooms in
Guangdong, the most populous province in China and one with
striking socioeconomic disparities. A stratified random sampling
approach was used to select participants. First, three municipali-
ties were selected based on the levels of economic development:
advanced, average, and below average, as classified by the Guang-
dong provincial government. Second, in each municipality, 20
schools were randomly selected from a list of preschools pro-
vided by the local education agency. Third, one class was randomly
selected from each school and each grade level (K1, K2, and K3).
Finally, all children in the classes investigated were invited to par-
ticipate in the study, and 98% of children’s parents signed the
consent forms. The final sample included 1582 children in K1 (aged
3–4), 1894 in K2 (aged 4–5), and 2152 in K3 (aged 5–6).
The number of participating children per class ranged from 7 to
58 (M = 31.27, SD = 8.34). Due to the shortage of teachers or low
enrollment of students in some rural areas, the class size varied
substantially among the participating classrooms. All of the lead
teachers in the 180 participating classrooms signed consent forms
for video recording and filled out the questionnaire that focused on
demographic information and teaching efficacy. Teachers were all
female, aged 18–58 years old (M = 31.62, SD = 7.33) with an average
of 10.32 years of teaching experience (SD = 6.92, Min = 1, Max = 30).
The majority of these teachers (77.2%) had obtained an associate’s
degree or higher through continuing education, majoring in ECE or
related fields such as elementary education or art education.
3.2. Procedure
The study was conducted in May and June of 2014 when chil-
dren were at the end of the spring semester. Before the data were
collected, the research project went through an ethics review at
the first author’s university. Sixteen graduate assistants majoring
in educational psychology were trained to assist with data collec-
tion. To become certified observers on the Classroom Assessment
Scoring System (CLASS; Pianta et al., 2008), the study’s principal
observation tool, they underwent four days of training and passed
an online reliability test offered by Teachstone. These certified
CLASS observers were subsequently dispatched to videotape the
selected classrooms between May and June 2014. The assigned
CLASS observer extracted five, randomly-selected, 20-min obser-
vation cycles from each classroom video of approximately 3 hrs,
covering the major daily routines: whole-group teaching, outdoor
play, center play activities, and routine care/activities. Following
Curby, Grimm, and Pianta’s (2010) approach, we estimated the sta-
bility using autoregressive models and found that the quality of
classroom interaction was highly stable during the three hours of
a day.
Two qualified CLASS raters independently observed and coded
each 20-min video of the observation cycle so that all cycles were
double-coded. After observing and scoring five cycles from one
classroom, the raters compared their ratings to see whether the
ratings were within a 1-point difference on the scale of 1–7. If not,
the raters had to repeat the cycle until they reached the accept-
able level of inter-rater consistency. As each classroom video was
B.Y. Hu et al.
coded by two graduate students, we calculated intraclass corre-
lation coefficients (ICCs) on the 10 dimensions of the CLASS to
examine interrater consistency. More specifically, the ICCs were
obtained from a two-way mixed-effect model for absolute agree-
ment (McGraw & Wong, 1996). The average interrater reliability
indexed by ICC was .89 and the standard deviation was .08 (Hu
et al., 2016), suggesting a high degree of interrater consistency in
the CLASS ratings.
Consent forms were obtained from parents before delivering
questionnaires to families’ homes. The parent survey included
questions about demographic information and assessment of chil-
dren’s social skills and problem behaviors. After completing the
surveys, parents were asked to return the completed packet to
the classroom teachers who later returned the packets to research
assistants on the day of classroom observation. Each child received
a small token (e.g., a picture book) for their participation.
3.3. Measures
3.3.1. Outcomes: social skills
The Social Skills Improvement System-Rating Scales (SSIS-RS;
Gresham & Elliott, 2008; parental version) were used to assess chil-
dren’s social skills. The social skills included 46 items, covering
communication, cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy,
engagement, and self-control. The items are on a four-point rat-
ing scale (0 = never, 1 = seldom, 2 = often, and 3 = almost always),
on which parents indicate the behavior frequency that a child has
exhibited within the past two months, such as “makes eye contact
when talking” and “interacts well with other children”. The higher
total score of the global scale is interpreted as better social skills.
A construct validity study reported the psychometric properties of
SSIS-RS in a Chinese sample (Hu et al., 2019). In the present study,
the internal consistency reliability indexed by Cronbach’s ˛ was .98
for social skills.
3.3.2. Predictors: teacher self-efficacy
The short version of the Teacher Self-Efficacy Inventory (TSEI;
Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001) was used to measure
teachers’ perceptions of self-efficacy for student engagement, class-
room management, and instructional strategies. The TSEI includes
12 items rated using a 9-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = nothing
to 9 = a great deal. The 12 items comprise three subscales, each with
four items: Efficacy in Student Engagement (ESE, e.g., “motivate
students who show low interest in schoolwork”), Efficacy in Class-
room Management (ECM, e.g., “control disruptive behavior in the
classroom”), and Efficacy in Instructional Strategies (EIS, e.g., “use
a variety of assessment strategies”). The instrument was translated
into Chinese and then back-translated into English by two bilingual
translators. The results of confirmatory factor analysis supported
the three-factor structure for our Chinese preschool sample (␹2 /df
= 2.50, TLI = .92, CFI = .90, RMSEA = .09, SRMR = .05). In the present
study, the Cronbach ˛ for Efficacy in Student Engagement (ESE) was
.83, Efficacy in Classroom Management (ECM) .80, and Efficacy in
Instructional Strategies (EIS) .77, with an overall reliability of the
scale equaling .90.
3.3.3. Mediators: teacher–child interaction quality
The CLASS (Pianta et al., 2008) is a widely validated observation
tool for assessing teacher-child interaction quality through three
domains: Emotional Support (ES), Classroom Organization (CO)
and Instructional Support (INS). ES consists of four dimensions:
positive climate, negative climate, teacher sensitivity, and regard
for student perspectives. CO consists of three dimensions: behav-
ior management, productivity, and instructional learning formats.
INS consists of three dimensions: concept development, quality of
feedback, and language modeling. Each dimension was rated on
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Early Childhood Research Quarterly 55 (2021) 242–251
a 7-point Likert scale, defined to include low (1, 2), middle (3, 4,
5), and high (6, 7) range levels. The cross-cultural validity of the
CLASS has been reported in many countries (Araujo, Carneiro, Cruz-
Aguayo, & Schady, 2016; Hamre, Hatfield, Pianta, & Jamil, 2014; La
Paro, Pianta, & Stuhlman, 2004; Leyva et al., 2015; Von Suchodoletz,
Fäsche, Gunzenhauser, & Hamre, 2014). A recent validation study
conducted in China also supported the three-domain structure in
the Chinese preschool context (Hu et al., 2016). The Cronbach’s ␣s
were .78, .84, and .92 for ES, CO and INS, respectively, suggesting a
good to excellent internal consistency reliability (Hu et al., 2016).
3.3.4. Covariates: Teacher and classroom demographic
information
Each lead teacher of the 180 participating classes completed a
questionnaire for their demographic information, including years
of teaching experience, educational background, number of chil-
dren and staff in the classroom. Years of teaching reflects the
teacher’s experience in preschool service and was measured as a
continuous variable. Teacher’s education was defined as the high-
est level of completed formal education and was dummy-coded (0
= technical secondary school and below, 1 = above technical sec-
ondary school). Student-to-teacher ratio was computed by dividing
the number of children by the number of staff in the classroom
at the time of the observation. Given that the participants were
recruited from three grade levels and three municipalities, both
grade level and municipality were dummy coded and included as
control variables. K1 served as the reference group for grade level,
and the municipality with a medium level of economic develop-
ment served as the reference group for municipality.
3.3.5. Covariates: parental demographic information
Family socio-economic status (SES) is an economic and sociolog-
ical composite measure, including the quantification of father and
mother’s education, occupation, and household income (Cohen,
Doyle, & Baum, 2006). These indicators were collected in the
parent survey, where educational level was assessed by seven
response categories ranging from “primary school” to “doctoral
degree”; parental occupation was coded into five categories from
“unemployment, job-waiting, part-time job or farmer” to “senior
management personnel and senior professional”; and the annual
income was divided into nine levels ranging from “less than RMB
2000” (equivalent to $280) to “more than RMB 100,000” (equiva-
lent to $14,000). The scores of these indicators were standardized
and averaged to create the family SES index score (Cohen et al.,
2006).
3.4. Data analysis
Given the stratified nature of the sample, children were nested
within classrooms and schools, which indicated non-independence
among observations. In the first stage, we examined intra-class
correlations (ICCs) to assess the extent of nesting. To determine pos-
sible difference in children outcomes across classes and schools, we
conducted an unconditional, three-level hierarchical linear model
(HLM): children at Level 1, classroom at Level 2, and school at
Level 3. The preliminary results show that between-class variance
explained the majority of the variance for social skills (ICC = .634),
whereas between-school variance could be ignored (ICC < .001).
Cohen (1988) suggested that the HLM method is more suitable than
general linear model when ICC is greater than .059. We thus decided
to control for classroom level but not for school by conducting a
two-level model with children at Level 1 and classrooms at Level 2
in the following analysis.
In the second stage, a conditional HLM with child-level and
classroom-level covariates was conducted. Child-level covariates
contained child’s age, gender and family SES, and classroom-
B.Y. Hu et al.
Fig. 1. Hypothesized hierarchical mediation model.
Note. (a) Bold lines represent significant paths at p = .05 level; (b) the regression coef-
ficients are standardized. All regressions were controlled by grade and municipality.
The three CLASS domains were also controlled by classroom-level demographic
information (years of teaching, education, and student-to-teacher ratio). Children’s
social skills were controlled by child-level demographic variables (age, gender, and
family SES); (c) *p < .05, **p < .01; and (d) the three domains of teacher’s self-efficacy
were included simultaneously and correlated in the data analysis, and the three
CLASS domains were also correlated.
level covariates contained teacher’s teaching experience, education
background, student-teacher ratio, grade level, and municipality.
All equations are reported in the Appendix. In this study, we used
the random-intercept model because this HLM focuses on the
relationships between child-level and teacher-level covariates and
children’s social skills. The interaction and mediation effects were
examined in the third stage.
In the third stage, the hypothesized hierarchical mediation
model depicted in Fig. 1 was performed for a 2-2-1 design. Here
we treated the three subscales of teacher self-efficacy (ESE, ECM,
EIS) as independent variables, the three domains of teacher–child
interaction quality (ES, CO, INS) as mediators, and social skills as the
dependent variable. Specifically, both independent variables and
mediators were Level-2 (classroom) variables, while the dependent
variable was a Level-1 (children) variable.
The estimate of the mediation effect, or indirect effect, was com-
puted as the product of the slope of the independent variable (ESE,
ECM, EIS) predicting the mediator (ES, CO, INS) and the slope of
the mediator (ES, CO, INS) predicting the outcome variable (social
skills) controlling for covariates. To assess the adequacy of the
hypothesized model, the following model fit indices were eval-
uated: the ratio of Chi-square to degrees of freedom (2 /df), the
comparative fit index (CFI), the Tucker–Lewis index (TLI), the root
mean square error of approximation (RMSEA), and the standard-
ized root mean square residual (SRMR). An acceptable model fit
is expected to have a 2 /df with values below 3, CFI and TLI higher
than .90, RMSEA lower than .08, and SRMR below .06 (Hu & Bentler,
1999). The Sobel z statistic (Sobel, 1982) was used to test the sig-
nificance of the mediation effect. All HLM analyses were conducted
using Mplus 7.4 (Muthén & Muthén, 2015).
4. Results
4.1. Predicting teacher–child interactions
The means, standard deviations, and correlations of indepen-
dent variables, mediators and control variables at the classroom
level are reported in Table 1. Significant correlations were found
between the three efficacy beliefs subscales and the three CLASS
domains (ps < .05). In the present study, we included all the three
subscales of efficacy beliefs in the analysis simultaneously to bet-
ter examine the unique contribution of each subscale to children’s
social skills. Therefore, we allowed the three subscales of efficacy
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Early Childhood Research Quarterly 55 (2021) 242–251
beliefs to correlate in the following analyses, and did the same
for three CLASS domains. As is shown in Table 1, the three CLASS
domains were positively associated with teacher’s self-efficacy in
classroom management (ECM) and years of teaching experience,
but negatively correlated with student-teacher ratio.
Table 2 provides an overview of the results obtained from hier-
archical mediation models. ECM was significantly and positively
related to all domains of CLASS (ES: m 12 = .124, ˇ = .224, p = .027;
CO: m 22 = .165, ˇ = .257, p = .009; and INS: m 32 = .103, ˇ = .211,
p = .037). This suggests that teachers who were confident in their
ability to maintain good classroom management provided children
with more sensitive, well-organized, and stimulating interactions.
Interestingly, teachers’ self-efficacy in student engagement (ESE)
was significantly and negatively related to CO (m 21 = −.194,
ˇ = −.245, p = .035) when other variables at the classroom level
were controlled, which suggests that teachers who felt efficacious
in maintaining students’ engagement had classrooms that looked
less organized overall. Teachers’ self-efficacy related to instruction
was not associated with any of the classroom process variables.
In terms of covariates, teachers with more years of teaching
experience showed significantly higher CO (m 24 = .019, ˇ = .161,
p = .035), and higher teacher education level was associated with
significantly higher ES (m 15 = .367, ˇ = .268, p = .001), CO (m
25 = .303, ˇ = .190, p = .012) and INS (m 35 = .182, ˇ = .151, p
= .050). Larger student–teacher ratio was associated with signifi-
cantly lower ES (m 16 = −.033, ˇ = −.199, p = .018) and CO (m
26 = −.031, ˇ = −.150, p = .049). Teachers in K2 (m 37 = .230, ˇ =
.180, p = .034) and K3 (m 38 = .262, ˇ = .200, p = .027) performed
higher INS than those in K1.
4.2. Predicting children’s social skills
The null model predicting children’s social skills yielded an ICC
of .632, indicating that the variability in children’s social skills
was mainly attributed to between-classroom effects. For the con-
ditional model with covariates (Table 2, Model 1, ICC = .056), the
variance of residuals at the classroom level substantially reduced
compared to the null model. More precisely, the proportion of vari-
ance explained by covariates was 2.3% ((309.48–302.23)/309.48 =
.023) at the individual level and 96.6% ((532.14−17.90)/532.14 =
.966) at the classroom level. In terms of individual level, age ( y
10 = .672, ˇ = .041, p = .045), gender ( y 20 = 2.317, ˇ = .064, p <
.001) and family SES ( y 30 = 4.877, ˇ = .236, p < .001) were posi-
tively associated with social skills. In terms of classroom level, the
differences in children’s social skills between K1 and K2 were very
large, but the discrepancies between K2 and K3 were much smaller
than those between K1 and K2 (K2 vs. K1:  y 04 = 45.495, ˇ = .969,
p < .001; K3 vs. K1:  y 05 = 47.306, ˇ = .986, p < .001), indicating
the non-linear growth trajectories across grades. Children in the
municipality with a below-average level of economic development
showed significantly lower social skills than the reference group (
y 06 = −5.077, ˇ = −.108, p < .001).
For the full model (Table 2, Model 2, ICC = .042), the results
indicated that the data fit the model reasonably well (2 /df = 2.90,
CFI = .936, TLI = .920, RMSEA = .023, SRMRwithin = .011, SRMRbetween =
.073). CO was significantly and positively related to children’s social
skills ( y 05 = 1.679, ˇ = .061, p = .029), but ES, INS, and teaching
efficacy were not (ps > .05), after all covariates at the individual level
and classroom level were controlled. Compared to the conditional
model with covariates, adding teacher’s self-efficacy and CLASS as
predictors of social skills reduced the between-classroom variance
by .86% ((17.90−13.32)/532.14 = .0086). The ICC for the full model
was .042, indicating that the amount of variation unexplained by
any predictors in the model that can be attributed to the classroom-
level variation was trivial.
B.Y. Hu et al. Early Childhood Research Quarterly 55 (2021) 242–251

Table 1
Means, Standard Deviations, and Correlations of Variables at Level 2 (n = 180)

M SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

1. ESE 6.644 1.045 —

2. ECM 6.995 1.239 .670** —
3. EIS 6.854 1.149 .774** .602** —
4. ES 5.025 .691 .070 .192* .038 —
5. CO 4.797 .808 −.066 .160* −.078 .773** —
6. INS 2.118 .612 .104 .240** .040 .522** .389** —
7. Teaching year 10.322 6.916 .158* .186* .153* .251** .293** .216** —
8. Teacher education 5.117 1.544 .060 .036 −.011 .362** .338** .243** .343** —
9. Student– teacher ratio 13.037 4.146 −.081 −.095 .064 −.223** −.231** −.185* −.140* −.214**

Note. (a) ESE = Efficacy in Student Engagement, ECM = Efficacy in Classroom Management, EIS = Efficacy in Instructional Strategies, ES = Emotional Support, CO = Classroom
Organization, INS = Instructional Support; (b) *p < .05, **p < .01.

Table 2
Hierarchical Mediation Results: Relations among TeacherSelf-efficacy, Teacher–child Interaction Quality, and Children’s Social Development

Mediators Outcome: Social skills

ES CO INS Model 0 Model 1 Model 2

Intercept 4.877** (.392) 5.300** (.444) 1.846** (.345) 102.181** (1.750) 66.042** (2.506) 63.989** (4.674)
Level 1 (child-level) variables
AGE .678* (.364) .699* (.380)
GENDER1 2.317** (.513) 2.244** (.533)
FAMILY SES 4.877** (.419) 4.888** (.439)
Level 2 (classroom-level) variables
ESE −.071 (.082) −.194* (.093) .002 (.072) .671 (.612)
ECM .124* (.057) .165** (.064) .103* (.050) −.570 (.429)
EIS −.026 (.071) −.044 (.080) −.075 (.062) −.380 (.514)
ES −.975 (.966)
CO 1.679* (.813)
INS .763 (.771)
TEACHING YEAR .011 (.008) .019* (.009) .009 (.007) .054 (.057) .016 (.059)
TEACHER EDU2 .367** (.107) .303* (.121) .182* (.093) .515 (.785) .405 (.825)
STRATIO −.033* (.014) −.031* (.016) −.022 (.013) −.129 (.104) −.139 (.109)
Grade K23 .142 (.123) .053 (.139) .230* (.108) 45.495** (.975) 45.310** (1.000)
Grade K33 .080 (.135) .018 (.152) .262* (.119) 47.306** (1.167) 47.327** (1.239)
MUNICIPALITY BELOW4 .011 (.125) −.277 (.142) −.108 (.110) −5.077** (.934) −4.763** (.970)
MUNICIPALITY ADVANCE4 −.017 (.132) −.016 (.149) −.077 (.116) .865 (.972) .754 (.994)
Random effects
Level 1 residual 309.478** (8.655) 302.230** (6.346) 301.398** (6.582)
Level 2 residual .377** (.042) .483** (.053) .292** (.032) 532.141** (26.088) 17.895** (2.245) 12.320** (2.135)
R2 Level 1 .062 .064
R2 Level 2 .193 .235 .200 .966 .974

Note. (a) Model 0 = null model, Model 1 = conditional model with covariates, Model 2 = full model with independent variables, mediators and covariates. (b) ESE = Efficacy
in Student Engagement, ECM = Efficacy in Classroom Management, EIS = Efficacy in Instructional Strategies, ES = Emotional Support, CO = Classroom Organization, INS =
Instructional Support. (c) *p < .05, **p < .01. (d) 1 Gender was dichotomous (0 = boy, 1 = girl); 2 teacher’s education was dichotomous (0 = technical secondary school graduated
and below, 1 = above technical secondary school graduated); 3 dummy coded with Grade K1 as the reference group; 4 dummy coded with the municipality with average
level of economic development as the reference group.

Using the product-of-coefficient method, the indirect effect of
ESE on children’s social skill through CO was −.326 with 95% con-
fidence interval (CI) [−.631, −.021], while the indirect effect of
ECM on social skills through CO was .278 (95% CI = [.034, .522]).
For ESE, teachers with higher self-efficacy for student engage-
ment provided less organized classroom environments, and these
less organized environments were associated with lower parent-
reported social skills. For ECM, teachers with greater self-efficacy
related to classroom management provided students with more
organized classroom environments, which in turn was associated
with higher parent-reported social skills.
Specifically, we examined whether teachers’ self-efficacy (Level-2
predictor) relates to children’s social skills (Level-1 outcome) as
mediated by teacher–child interactions (Level-2 mediators). The
most important takeaway is that Classroom Organization (CO) was
confirmed to be a positive mediator between Efficacy in Classroom
Management (ECM) and children’s social skills; however, it was a
negative mediator between Efficacy in Student Engagement (ESE)
and children’s social outcomes. Below, we discuss the findings and
their implications in detail.
5.1. Teachers’ self-efficacy and teacher–child interactions

5. Discussion The current finding of an association between teachers’ self-

The development of positive social skills is a key element of child
well-being during the preschool years. As the Chinese government
seeks to expand access to high quality preschool, it is important
to understand the processes that support positive development
in this domain. In this study, we utilized a multilevel mediation
model to investigate the interconnections among teachers’ self-
efficacy, teacher–child interactions, and preschoolers’ social skills.
efficacy and teacher–child interactions supports the basic tenets
of the Heuristic Model of Teacher Self-efficacy that teachers’ self-
efficacy constitutes a major psychological foundation for effective
classroom teaching (Zee & Koomen, 2016). These results are in
keeping with prior research, which has found that efficacious teach-
ers are more likely to have high-quality interactions with students
(Holzberger et al., 2013; Künsting et al., 2016), as they are con-
fident in their teaching abilities and effectiveness, demonstrating

247
B.Y. Hu et al.
persistence in helping children master concepts and utilize diverse
feedback strategies.
5.2. Positive association between ECM and teacher–child
interactions
The current findings indicate that teachers with higher ECM
tended to exhibit better emotional, behavioral, and instructional
support — all three domains of teacher–child interactions. ECM
captures teachers’ beliefs about their competencies in execut-
ing effective control over classroom order and student behaviors
(Browers & Tomic, 2000). Classroom management is a significant
challenge for Chinese preschool teachers, who often lead large
classes averaging 30–40 children each (Hu et al., 2017). Many teach-
ers find it difficult to manage behavior in such large classes, because
children show various patterns of behavioral and learning chal-
lenges (Blatchford & Russell, 2019). Based on the current findings,
Chinese teachers who feel confident in their classroom manage-
ment skills are more likely to provide higher quality emotional
support, classroom organization, and instructional support to their
students.
5.3. The negative association between ESE and classroom
organization
To our surprise, we found that as teachers’ efficacy of student
engagement (ESE) increased, their ratings of classroom organi-
zation decreased. After careful consideration, we speculate that
this association may be related to teachers’ tendency to organize
classroom activities that elicit children’s meaningful and active
engagement (Bandura, 1997). Teachers with high ESE may seek
to facilitate children’s active involvement in classroom processes
rather than making children work exclusively on tasks arranged by
teachers, which may result in less productive and organized use of
class time. On the other hand, teachers with low ESE might more
rigidly hold children’s attention to classroom tasks (Alford, Rollins,
Padrón, & Waxman, 2016).
Discipline and order are highly valued by teachers in Chinese
preschool classrooms due to cultural influences of Collectivism (Rao
& Sun, 2017). Previous observational studies suggest that Chinese
teachers tend to receive high ratings for well-disciplined class-
rooms because children are obedient even when their involvement
might be passive (Lan et al., 2009). Teachers with high ESE may
place more value on children’s free choice and active involvement,
which may have the unintended effect of reducing classroom orga-
nization. The decrease in classroom organization may be associated
with teachers’ loosening of control over classroom conformity and
discipline, which suggests that the participating teachers lack effec-
tive behavioral management skills. Further research is needed to
test this hypothesis.
Moreover, well-organized classrooms “at the high-end of behav-
ior management may not be evident “in teachers’ behaviors such
as proactive strategies and effective redirection because children’s
behavior is so well managed.” (Pianta et al., 2008, p. 44). When
teachers’ proactivity and misbehavior redirection are not observed
in the classroom organization process when no students show
misbehaviors, the raters may suppose that “effective behavioral
strategies are in place and a classroom may score in the high range”
(Pianta et al., 2008, p.4). Given the abovementioned rating rules,
Chinese teachers tend to get high scores on Classroom Organiza-
tion domain because their children are trained to follow teachers’
rules, classroom disciplines, and comply with commands (Hu et al.,
2017), which are prosocial behaviors valued by the Chinese society.
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Early Childhood Research Quarterly 55 (2021) 242–251
5.4. Well-organized classrooms facilitate children’s social skills
In the current mediation analysis, we identified a direct cross-
level effect of teachers’ classroom organization quality on children’s
social skills, which echoed previous findings (Korpershoek et al.,
2016; Skiba et al., 2016). Children in well-organized classrooms
are more likely to exhibit better task engagement (Ponitz, Rimm-
Kaufman, Grimm, & Curby, 2009), more prosocial behavior, and less
aggression toward others (Simonsen, Fairbanks, Briesch, Myers,
& Sugai, 2008). It may be that well-organized classrooms create
more opportunities for children to engage in positive and meaning-
ful social interactions because time is well-managed, children are
engaged in purposeful activities, and disruptive, negative behaviors
are kept to a minimum (Pianta et al., 2008). In this way, children
tend to acquire better social skills in well-organized classrooms
(McCormick, Cappella, O’Connor, & McClowry, 2015).
5.5. The mediating role of classroom organization
In the current study, teachers’ emotional and instructional sup-
port were not statistically significant mediators between teachers’
self-efficacy and children’s social skills. Classroom organization
was the only classroom-level mediator bridging the associa-
tion between teachers’ self-efficacy and children’s social skills.
Teachers’ self-efficacy in classroom management was higher in
classrooms that were better organized, had fewer discipline prob-
lems, and made better use of class time, and parents of students in
those classrooms perceived that their children had stronger social
skills. However, teachers’ self-efficacy in student engagement was
negatively associated with classroom organization rated by the par-
ticipating parents.
It is reasonable that teachers’ instructional support showed no
significant mediation of the path from teachers’ self-efficacy to chil-
dren’s social skills. Previous research has indicated that children’s
social skill development is more likely to be influenced by teach-
ers’ emotional and behavioral support rather than instructional
support (Broekhuizen et al., 2016). What is surprising though is
that the current research finding does not replicate the mediating
role of teachers’ emotional support between teachers’ self-efficacy
and children’s social outcomes. This is inconsistent with some ear-
lier findings that teachers’ emotional support showed significant
associations with children’s socio-emotional development (Curby
et al., 2013; Mashburn et al., 2008). It may be, given that emotional
support and behavioral support are highly correlated, that the influ-
ence of classroom organization overshadows emotional support in
Chinese preschool classrooms (Hu et al., 2017), especially because
Chinese class sizes tend to be large.
Consistent with our hypothesis, we found that teachers’ CO
positively mediated the relation between teachers’ ECM and chil-
dren’s social skills. This finding is also in line with the extant
literature that teachers’ self-efficacy is positively associated with
classroom processes, which will in turn positively affect chil-
dren’s outcomes (e.g., Guo et al., 2012; Zee & Koomen, 2016).
Unexpectedly, teachers’ CO was a negative mediator between
teachers’ ESE and children’s social skills. This seemingly awk-
ward finding may reflect the dilemma Chinese preschool teachers
face as they struggle to maintain the balance of implementing
child-centered initiatives and training children to behave socially
in accordance with norms and expectations of Chinese soci-
ety.
Social skills are socially acceptable, learned behaviors enabling
individuals’ effective and appropriate interactions with others in
society (Pearson & Rao, 2003). According to Chen and French (2008),
sociocultural values are reflected in the realization of children’s
classroom socialization goals. Strongly influenced by the sociocul-
tural value of Confucianism, Chinese parents and teachers train
B.Y. Hu et al.
children not to reveal their inner feelings and to maintain solemnity
and self-control as important early childhood socialization goals
(Bond & Wang, 1983). In Chinese schools, children are expected to
develop social skills that can enhance harmony and collectivity in
groups (Cheah & Rubin, 2003). Thus, Chinese teachers mostly use
classroom organization strategies to train children’s social skills in
line with social norms, such as good manners, sense of responsibil-
ity, tolerance/respect for others, and obedience to authority figures
(Cheah & Rubin, 2003). These teachers might have a strong sense
of classroom management, but they lack a child-centered approach
to teaching and learning.
On the other hand, teachers who take a more child-centered
approach to teaching might have a stronger sense of engage-
ment, as they might prefer authentically incorporating children’s
ideas into their teaching, eliciting children’s active participation.
Teachers with strong ESE might value students’ behaviors such
as questioning authority and even being argumentative, even if
that means ignoring other on-going group activities. These learn-
ing and social behaviors, however, might be perceived as selfish,
disobedient or lacking in Chinese sociocultural context. In such
a case, teachers with high ESE may hinder the positive effects of
classroom organization on children’s social skills in Chinese soci-
ety.
5.6. Limitation, directions for future research and implications for
practice
This study has several limitations. First, this study only pro-
vides evidence for the correlations among teacher self-efficacy,
classroom organization, and child social skills. Cross-lagged or
experimental designs should be applied in future research to
determine cause-and-effect relations among teachers’ efficacy
beliefs, classroom practices, and child social outcomes. Second,
we were primarily interested in children’s social outcomes in
the current study. Future relevant studies should expand this
work to look at children’s academic and cognitive outcomes in
order to investigate how the mediation mechanism of classroom
processes works to connect teachers’ personal efficacy beliefs
to other aspects of children’s performance. Third, this study
was conducted in the Chinese preschool context, so the results
may not generalize to children in other social or cultural back-
grounds.
Despite the limitations, this research indicates that there
are indirect effects of ECM and ESE on children’s social skills
through the mediation of classroom organization. These impor-
tant mediation mechanisms may have implications for both theory
and practice. First, these mediation mechanisms extend previous
conceptual models regarding associations among teachers’ self-
efficacy, classroom processes, and child performance into Chinese
preschool contexts. By exploring these mechanisms, we developed
a deeper understanding that classroom organization is a major
classroom-level element explaining how teachers’ efficacy exerts
an influence on children’s social skills. Thus, future curricula aim-
ing at improving teachers’ self-efficacy classroom organization skill
should be added to both pre- and in-service teachers’ professional
development programs.
The negative mediation effect of CO for the relationship between
ESE and children’s social skills suggests a possible gap between
Chinese preschool teachers’ beliefs and practices in terms of effi-
ciently training children to meet parents’ expectations. Modern
Chinese children’s social development is a complicated issue influ-
enced jointly by Chinese Confucianism and Western child-centered
ideologies (e.g., Hu et al., 2017; Pearson & Rao, 2003). On one
hand, traditional Chinese teachers tend to train children’s social
249
Early Childhood Research Quarterly 55 (2021) 242–251
skills to satisfy parental and societal expectations. These teachers
have a strong desire to foster children’s good manners, obedience
to authoritarian figures, and respect for others in their classroom
organizational processes.
On the other hand, teachers practicing child-centeredness in
classrooms focus more on children’s active participations and indi-
vidualized experiences (Lerkkanen et al., 2016). Children taught by
high-ESE teachers may pay more attention to their own thoughts
and feelings, rather than classroom rules and discipline. These
children are more likely to get lower evaluations from parents
and society on social skills. Therefore, Chinese preschool teachers
should strike a better balance between eliciting children’s active
participations in classroom processes and their effective learn-
ing of good social skills advocated within Chinese social systems.
Researchers and ECE professionals are charged with the respon-
sibility to define the goals for social skills training for preschool
children in Chinese sociocultural contexts.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Bi Ying Hu: Conceptualization, Investigation, Supervision.
Yuanhua Li: Data curation, Writing - original draft. Chuang Wang:
Methodology, Writing - review & editing. Huiping Wu: Method-
ology, Formal analysis, Writing - original draft. Ginny Vitiello:
Writing - review & editing.
Acknowledgements
The research was supported by the project “The Effects of
Preschool Program Quality on Children’s Mid- to Long-term
Learning and Development Outcomes: A Follow-up Three-year
Longitudinal Study” (University of Macau Multi-Year Research
Grant; MYRG20l8-00024-FED). Also, this work was partially sup-
ported by the Program for Probability and Statistics: Theory and
Application (No. IRTL1704) to the fourth author.
Appendix A
The conditional model with child-level and classroom-level covari-
ates but without mediators:
Level1 :Y ij =ˇy0 j +ˇy1 j (AGE)+ˇy2 j (GENDER)+ˇy3 j (FAMILYSES)+εyij
Level2 :ˇy0 j = y00 + y01 (TEACHINGYEAR)+ y02 (TEACHEREDU)
+ y03 (STRATIO)+ y04 (GRADEK2)+ y05 (GRADEK3)
+ y06 (MUNICIPALITYBELOW)+ y07 (MUNICIPALITYADVANCE)
+uy0 j
ˇyqj = yqj (+uyqj ), forq= 1, 2, 3,
where Yij is the outcome variable (social skills) for the ith child
in the jth class; εyij and uy0 j are Level-1 (child-level) and Level-2
(classroom-level) residuals for Y, respectively, with assumptions
of εyij ∼ N(0, ␴2 ), uy0 j ∼ N(0,  00 ) and Cov(εyij , uy0 j ) = 0; inter-
cept  y00 represents the estimated grand mean value of Y across
all children; slopes  y1 j ,  y2 j ,  y3 j represent the fixed effects of
child-level covariates (age, gender, family SES) on Y; and  y0q (q
= 1, 2, . . ., 7) represents the fixed effects of classroom-level covari-
ates (teaching year, teacher’s education, student-teacher ratio, two
dummy-coded grade variables and two dummy-coded municipal-
ity variables) on Y.
B.Y. Hu et al.
The final model for the individual outcome:
Level1 :Y ij =ˇy0 j +ˇy1 j (AGE)+ˇy2 j (GENDER)+ˇy3 j (FAMILYSES)+εyij
Level2 :ˇy0 j = y00 + y01 (ESE)+ y02 (ECM)+ y03 (EIS)+ y04 (ES)
+ y05 (CO)+ y06 (INS)+ y07 (TEACHINGYEAR)
+ y08 (TEACHEREDU)+ y09 (STRATIO)+ y0,10 (GRADEK2)
+ y0,11 (GRADEK3)+ y0,12 (MUNICIPALITYBELOW)
+ y0,13 (MUNICIPALITYADVANCE)+uy 0j
ˇy qj = yq0 , forq= 1, 2, 3,
where  y 0q (q = 1, 2, . . ., 13) represents the fixed effects of
classroom-level variable (three subscales of teaching self-efficacy,
three domains of CLASS, teacher and classroom demographic infor-
mation) on Y.
The equations for the mediators:
Level2 : ES = m10 + m11 (ESE)+ m12 (ECM)+ m13 (EIS)
+ m14 (TEACHINGYEAR)+ m15 (TEACHEREDU)+ m16 (STRATIO)
+ m17 (GRADEK2)+ m18 (GRADEK3)
+ m19 (MUNICIPALITYBELOW)
+ m1,10 (MUNICIPALITYADVANCE)+um1 j
CO = m20 + m21 (ESE)+ m22 (ECM)+ m23 (EIS)
+ m24 (TEACHINGYEAR)+ m25 (TEACHEREDU)+ m26 (STRATIO)
+ m27 (GRADEK2)+ m28 (GRADEK3)
+ m29 (MUNICIPALITYBELOW)
+ m2,10 (MUNICIPALITYADVANCE)+um2 j
INS = m30 + m31 (ESE)+ m32 (ECM)+ m33 (EIS)
+ m34 (TEACHINGYEAR)+ m35 (TEACHEREDU)+ m36 (STRATIO)
+ m37 (GRADEK2)+ m38 (GRADEK3)
+ m39 (MUNICIPALITYBELOW)
+ m3,10 ((MUNICIPALITYADVANCE)+um3 j ,
where intercepts  m10 ,  m20 ,  m30 represent the averaged values
of ES, CO and INS across all classrooms, slopes  m1q ,  m2q ,  m3q (q =
1, 2, . . ., 10) represent the fixed effects of classroom-level variables
on ES, CO and INS, respectively; and um1 j , um2 j , um3 j are Level-2
residuals for mediators (ES, CO and INS), respectively.
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