How Does testing for mediation Work?

Testing for mediation is like figuring out if a friend helps you finish your homework before you go to play.

Imagine you and your friend are both trying to get ready for recess. You have a lot of math problems to solve, but you're slow at it. Your friend is good at math and likes to help. So, sometimes your friend does the hard parts for you, this makes you finish faster and get to play sooner.

In testing for mediation, we’re checking if something in between causes an effect. Like how your friend helping you (the mediator) helps you finish your homework (the outcome), even though the real reason you wanted to go to recess was because of the math problems (the original cause).

We look at three things:

1. The original cause, like the math problems.
2. The mediator, like your friend helping you.
3. The final result, like getting to play sooner.

If we see that the mediator connects the cause and the result, then we know it's working like a helper in between!