Principals’ democratic leadership and students’ social skills: The mediating role of school climate

This study examines the relationship between principals’ democratic leadership and students’ social skills, focusing on the mediating role of a democratic school climate and whether this mediated relationship is consistent across school levels. Using a 2-year longitudinal dataset from Gangwon Province, South Korea, we analyzed survey responses from 2259 fifth-grade elementary school and 1925 tenth-grade high school students, along with teacher assessments of principal leadership. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized mediation model, with analyses conducted separately for each grade to account for developmental differences. Among high school students, principals’ democratic leadership significantly predicted students’ perceptions of a democratic school climate, which, in turn, was positively associated with their social skills. The indirect effect of leadership on social skills through school climate was statistically significant, whereas the direct effect was not. However, these relationships were not significant for elementary school students. We applied the mediated-effects model of leadership to social skill outcomes and found that the indirect pathway through school climate was evident for high school students but not for elementary students, suggesting that it may operate in a context-dependent rather than a uniform manner.