123 Summary and general discussion impact observed in teachers’ perceived classroom climate quality could be attributed to the notion that changes in teaching behavior might have a more immediate effect on the overall classroom climate quality than on individual pupil-teacher relationships. According to Mainhard (2023), teachers play an essential role in shaping a positive classroom climate in which peace, confidence, and effective learning thrive. Throughout the day, teachers mainly focus on the group of pupils as a whole. Sutton et al. (2009) suggest that teachers use emotions as a tool to maintain a harmonious classroom. Shewark et al. (2018) found in their qualitative research on 31 teachers from 10 private and public schools that teachers view their emotions as key determinants of classroom climate quality, emphasizing the importance of regulating emotions to model positive behavior for pupils. This regulation helps create a well-managed classroom climate, which children closely observe and imitate. However, Shewark et al. (2018) also noted that failure to regulate emotions causes stress for teachers, potentially explaining why improvements in the present thesis are first seen in teachers’ perceived classroom climate quality rather than in individual relationships. Additionally, Mainhard (2023) underscores the significance of the interpersonal perspective, which is always at play when several people are present simultaneously, such as in a classroom (Leary, 1957; Sullivan, 1953). He emphasizes the importance of teachers being able to interpret and direct interpersonal processes, as they can influence the atmosphere and social standards through their behavior and actions (Pennings et al., 2018; Sadler et al., 2010; Sadler et al., 2009), which initially impacts classroom climate quality more visibly. Over time, as teachers continue to adjust their behaviors, the focus may shift to enhancing individual pupil-teacher relationships. In this thesis, mediation research has identified mindfulness skills, self-compassion, emotion regulation, and teacher self-efficacy as potential mediators of program effectiveness. Self-compassion and emotion regulation mediated the effects of the MBSR program on perceived stress. Self-compassion mediated the effect of the MBSR program on well-being and teacher self-efficacy mediated the effect of the MBSR program on improvement of classroom climate quality. This supports the theory’s proposed pathways from proximal outcomes to distal outcomes. This suggests that targeting these mechanisms could enhance the program’s effectiveness in reducing teachers’ perceived stress, improving their well-being, and fostering a positive classroom climate. However, the absence of a mid-treatment assessment in our study limited insight into the sequential progression of changes in the mediation process, thereby partially impeding the testing of the theoretical model. Prior research has shown self-compassion and emotion regulation mediating stress reduction among public school teachers (Roeser et al., 2013; Taylor et al., 2016). However, a systematic review of mediation studies highlights inconsistent evidence for the mediation effects of self-compassion in MBIs on psychological outcomes, attributed partly to methodological limitations (Gu et al., 2015). Regarding teacher self-efficacy, it aligns with other research demonstrating that high levels of teacher self-efficacy are associated with better management of behavior problems, positive teacher-student relationships, increased student engagement, and 7
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