The Effect of Preschool Teachers’ Perceptions of Multicultural Education on Their Empathy Skills: The Mediating Roles of Multicultural Attitudes and Sensitivity

The present study investigates the effect of preschool teachers’ perceptions of multicultural education on their empathy skills, focusing on the parallel mediating roles of multicultural attitudes and multicultural sensitivity. The data were collected through the implementation of online surveys, which were designed in accordance with a quantitative descriptive–correlational design. The employed scales demonstrated satisfactory reliability (α = .756–.835). The present study employed a parallel mediation analysis using PROCESS Model 4, the results of which indicated that perceptions of multicultural education directly and positively predicted empathy (B = 0.389, p < .001). Furthermore, perceptions significantly predicted multicultural attitudes (B = 0.703, p < .001) and multicultural sensitivity (B = 0.181, p = .003). While multicultural attitudes were found to be a significant predictor of empathy (B = 0.364, p < .001), the direct effect of multicultural sensitivity was not significant (B = 0.066, p = .131). The indirect effects confirmed the partial mediating role of attitudes in the perception-empathy relationship, whereas the mediating role of sensitivity was not supported. These findings emphasize the pivotal function of attitudinal orientation, in conjunction with perceptions, in cultivating empathic teacher–child interactions and contribute to policy deliberations on enhancing multicultural competencies in early childhood teacher education.