Figure 1.

Schematic depicting the mediation models and regression paths. The objective of the mediation analysis was to determine if the indirect effect (paths a*b, which is equal to paths c-c’) was different from zero, suggesting the mediating variable altered the strength of the relationship between X and Y. Three models were used to assess the mediation: X regressed on Y, X regressed on M, and both X and M regressed on Y. The letters a, b, c, and c’ refer to estimates the beta coefficients for each respective model, with e representing the error term.