The relationship between theory of mind and moral sensitivity among Chinese preschool children: the mediating role of empathy

Table 5 Mediation analysis: direct and indirect effects of ToM on moral sensitivity

	Total effect	Direct effect	Indirect effect: The mediation effect of empathy
4-year-old	c	c’	a	b	a×b
4-year-old	β [95%CI]	β [95%CI]	β [95%CI]	β [95%CI]	β [95%CI]
Theory of mind	0.23	0.20	0.11	0.27	0.03
/Moral sensitivity	[0.05, 0.35]	[0.12, 0.26]	[0.03, 0.55]	[0.01, 0.23]	[0.00, 0.04]
5-year-old	c	c’	a	b	a×b
5-year-old	β [95%CI]	β [95%CI]	β [95%CI]	β [95%CI]	β [95%CI]
Theory of mind	0.13	0.06	0.19	0.39	0.07
/Moral sensitivity	[0.09, 0.27]	[-0.12, 0.16]	[0.01, 0.59]	[0.02, 0.19]	[0.00, 0.11]

Note. CI = confidence interval. β refers to the standardized parameter estimates

ISSN: 2050-7283