92 Chapter 5 Figure 4 Multiple mediation model of the effect of the intervention group versus control group on classroom climate quality, mediated by four mediators. Total effect (c-path) is given in parentheses. Note: *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001 DISCUSSION In this study, we investigated the effects of an MBSR program on four potential working mechanisms (mindfulness skills, self-compassion, emotion regulation and teacher selfefficacy) and explored whether these processes constitute mediators underlying program effectiveness. The analyses were conducted with data of a longitudinal RCT study with a three-month follow-up design which allowed us to provide more insight into the causality of the found relationships. We hypothesized that the MBSR program would strengthen these four mechanisms which would lead to a decrease in perceived stress and an improvement in teachers’ well-being and classroom climate quality. The findings of this study contribute to the limited number of studies that examine mediators of MBSR programs for teachers (Emerson et al., 2017; Tsang et al., 2021). This is important as gathering information about the working mechanisms will enable us to increase the effectivity of MBSR programs for teachers. More effective MBSR programs may results in higher levels of teachers’ well-being (Emerson et al., 2017) and, ultimately, their pupils’ health and academic achievements too (Harding et al., 2019; Klusmann et al., 2016). Our findings show that self-compassion mediates the effects of the MBSR program on perceived stress and well-being. Self-compassion helps to be non-judgmental towards oneself when dealing with challenges. When teachers are less afraid of making mistakes, prioritize self-care, and can better contextualize a situation, it is more likely that they experience less stress and more well-being. Our findings are in line with previous studies from Canada and the United States that found that self-compassion mediated
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