Comparison of Tests of Indirect Effect in Single Mediation Analysis

Abstract

This study compares various methods of mediations analysis. Firstly, it compares the two methods of calculating indirect effect which are product of coefficient and difference of coefficients respectively. Secondly, the study compares the three methods of testing the significance of indirect effect vis avis Sobel’s test, Aroian test and Goodman’s test. The differences in these three tests are due to variations in the methods of standard error computation. The findings are discussed. The results show that both methods of product of coefficients and difference of coefficients give approximately the same result. However the product of coefficient gave a slightly higher result. The comparison of test of indirect effect for mediator shows that the tests gave the same result for Sobel’s, Aroian and Goodman test. The study recommended further studies to seek methods of ascertaining the direction of relationship of indirect effect, other than those of the regression models, further studies may be carried out to determine the effect of multicolinearity on mediation results.