How transformational leadership is associated with primary and secondary school teachers' social-emotional competence: a multiple mediation analysis.

This study examined indirect association patterns between Transformational Leadership and primary and secondary school teachers' Social-Emotional Competence, with supplementary analyses exploring whether these patterns varied across leadership dimensions. Drawing on Ecological Systems Theory and the Prosocial Classroom Model, data were collected from 760 primary and secondary school teachers and analyzed using a multiple mediation model. Transformational Leadership was significantly and positively associated with teachers' Social-Emotional Competence. In the overall model, the indirect association via Teaching Efficacy was the strongest; the pathway via Teacher-Student Relationship was significant but small, whereas the pathway via School Climate was not significant. Supplementary dimension-specific analyses showed that the relative prominence of these pathways varied across leadership dimensions. Overall, the findings indicate that Teaching Efficacy was the most prominent correlate in the estimated indirect association between Transformational Leadership and teachers' Social-Emotional Competence, while School Climate showed a less consistent pattern. These results highlight the relevance of both school contextual resources and teachers' confidence-related psychological resources for understanding teachers' social-emotional competence.