Irfan Ahmed, PhD

When researchers find a relationship between an independent variable (A) and a dependent variable (C), they may seek to uncover variables that mediate this relationship. That is, they may believe that the effect of variable A on variable C exits because variable A leads to a change in a mediating variable (M), which in turn effects the dependent variable (C). When a variable fully mediates a relationship, the effect of variable A on variable C disappears when controlling for the mediating variable. A variable partially mediates a relationship when the effect of variable A on variable C is significantly reduced when controlling for the mediator. A common way of expressing these patterns is the following:   You need to conduct three different regression analyses to determine if you have a mediated relationship using the traditional method Regression 1 . Predict the dependent variable (C) from the independent variable (A). The effect of the independent variable in