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Mediation analysis and categorical variables: The final frontier
Author(s) -
Iacobucci Dawn
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of consumer psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.433
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1532-7663
pISSN - 1057-7408
DOI - 10.1016/j.jcps.2012.03.006
Subject(s) - categorical variable , mediation , variable (mathematics) , frontier , variables , psychology , process (computing) , econometrics , continuous variable , external variable , social psychology , computer science , statistics , sociology , mathematics , machine learning , political science , social science , law , mathematical analysis , programming language , operating system
Many scholars are interested in understanding the process by which an independent variable affects a dependent variable, perhaps in part directly and perhaps in part indirectly, occurring through the activation of a mediator. Researchers are facile at testing for mediation when all the variables are continuous, but a definitive answer had been lacking heretofore as to how to analyze the data when the mediator or dependent variable is categorical. This paper describes the problems that arise as well as the potential solutions. In the end, a solution is recommended that is both optimal in its statistical qualities as well as practical and easily implemented: compute z Mediation .