Figure 3.

Early conscience, moral self, and competent, adaptive functioning: The mediation model for father–child dyads. Although not depicted in the model, child gender is a covariate. Paths a₁, a₂: the effect of the independent variable (internalization, empathy) regressed on the mediator variable (moral self). Path b: the effect of the mediator variable regressed on the dependent variable (competent, adaptive functioning). Paths c₁, c₂: the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable without the mediator considered. Paths $c_1^{\prime },c_2^{\prime }$: the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable with the mediator considered. Solid lines represent significant effects and dashed lines represent nonsignificant effects. F = father; C = child; mo. = months.