Pre-service Teachers' Attitudes Toward Early Childhood Sexuality Education as a Mediator Between Knowledge and Teaching Self-Efficacy: Gender as A Moderator

Yumo DING^*Nurul Khairani IsmailKamariah Abu Bakar

• National University of Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia

With the global advancement of sexuality education, educators' professional preparedness has become essential to improving its quality and sustainability. In early childhood education, teachers' knowledge, attitudes, and self-efficacy significantly influence children's developing concepts of sexuality. However, while much research focuses on in-service teachers, limited attention has been given to pre-service teachers, who are future implementers of sexuality education. To address this gap, the present study developed and validated a mediation model based on Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory. Based on the theory emphasis that knowledge, attitudes, and self-efficacy are individual-level interrelated factors, this paper focuses on examining how attitudes mediate the relationship between pre-service teachers' knowledge of sexuality education and their teaching self-efficacy, and how gender moderates this pathway. Using a cluster sampling method, data were collected from 458 Chinese pre-service teachers majoring in early childhood education. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test the model. Findings revealed that attitudes significantly mediated the knowledge–self-efficacy relationship, and gender moderated this mediation effect, with effect among females is stronger than that of males. These results contribute to the theoretical understanding of pre-service teacher development in sexuality education and offer practical implications for designing gender-sensitive teacher training programs. The study supports the development of targeted policies and instructional support systems aimed at enhancing professional competencies in delivering early childhood sexuality education.