Instructors’ teaching styles in higher education are an issue of major importance because these interactions affect students’ self-perceptions, involvement, and achievement. This study aimed to test a theoretical model of relations between perceived teaching styles (autonomy support, structure, and control) and competences, self-efficacy, and commitment in pre-service teachers; to assess the invariance of the model in two samples; and to analyze the mediated relations between these variables. Measures were collected from 842 Spanish pre-service teachers. As main research implications, teaching styles predicted acquired competences, competences predicted teaching self-efficacy, and self-efficacy predicted commitment to the profession. This model was equivalent in two samples of childhood and primary education pre-service teachers. Competences and self-efficacy mediated the relationships between variables. As practical implications, this study clearly shows the need for different interventions to enhance adequate instructors’ teaching styles and to foster among novice pre-service teachers the acquisition of professional competences, initial self-efficacy, and a good level of commitment to their profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]