Psychological Development and Education ›› 2012, Vol. 28 ›› Issue (1): 105-111.

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Mediation Analysis and Effect Size Measurement:Retrospect and Prospect

FANG Jie1, ZHANG Min-qiang1, CHIOU Haw-jeng1,2   

  1. 1. Research Center of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China;
    2. College of Management, Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan, China
  • Online:2012-01-15 Published:2012-01-15

Abstract: Synthesizing and comparing the methods of mediation analysis and effect size index,we suggest the focus on the significance between the independent and dependent variables,both before and after mediation tests,is unjustified and can impair theory development and testing.We recommend that,1)mediator effect can be analyzed by bias-corrected percentile bootstrap method;2)full and partial mediation should be replaced by κ2Rmed2 index, whenever possible,confidence intervals for the population effect size should be reported.Mediation analysis and effect size measurement are applied to a real-world example using data from a health promotion program to improve the nutrition habits of firefighters.MBESS package of R software is also provided for researchers to implement mediation analysis and effect size measurement.The future research direction of mediation analysis and effect size measurement is discussed at the end of the paper.

Key words: mediation, casual steps approach, bootstrap method, effect size

CLC Number: 

  • B844
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