The meditating effect of self-esteem on the relationship between multicultural efficacy and democratic citizenship of upper-grade elementary students

Purpose: This study aims to examine the mediating effect of self-esteem in the relationship between multicultural efficacy and democratic citizenship of elementary students. Method: The data of 212 upper-grade elementary students(4th~6th grade) was collected. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and mediation effect were performed using SPSS 27.0. and Hayes’s(2022) PROCESS macro v.4.2 (model 4). Results: First, children’s multicultural efficacy, self-esteem, and democratic citizenship were significant difference according to gender, leader experience, and volunteering experience. Second, there was appeared to be a significant positive correlation between the variables. Third, children’s self-esteem was found to have a significant mediating effect in the relationship between multicultural efficacy and democratic citizenship of children. Conclusion: This suggests that in order to increase elementary student’s democratic citizenship, children’s self-esteem should be guaranteed along with efforts to increase multicultural efficacy.