Moderating and mediating variables, or simply moderators and mediators, are related but distinct concepts in both general statistics and its application in psychology. A moderating variable is a variable that affects the relationship between two other variables. This effect is usually referred to as an interaction. The simplest case of an interaction can occur in analysis of variance (ANOVA). For example, we tested whether there is a significant difference in the level of anxiety (as measured with an appropriate standardized psychological test) between married and unmarried participants (i.e., variable marital status). The effect was not statistically significant. However, when we enter the third variable – gender (female/male) – it appears that, on average, unmarried males are significantly more anxious than married males, while for females the effect is the reverse. Figure 1represents the results from two models described above. In the left-hand panel, we can see that, on average,...
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References and Further Reading
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Milin, P., Hadžić, O. (2011). Moderating and Mediating Variables in Psychological Research. In: Lovric, M. (eds) International Encyclopedia of Statistical Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04898-2_631
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