The DOI matches its Crossref record; 66 of the 66 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Mediation in experimental and nonexperimental studies: New procedures and recommendations.
Abstract
Mediation is said to occur when a causal effect of some variable X on an outcome Y is explained by some intervening variable M. The authors recommend that with small to moderate samples, bootstrap methods (B. Efron & R. Tibshirani, 1993) be used to assess mediation. Bootstrap tests are powerful because they detect that the sampling distribution of the mediated effect is skewed away from 0. They argue that R. M. Baron and D. A. Kenny's (1986) recommendation of first testing the X --> Y association for statistical significance should not be a requirement when there is a priori belief that the effect size is small or suppression is a possibility. Empirical examples and computer setups for bootstrap analyses are provided.
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Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“The indirect effect was estimated with bias-corrected bootstrapped confidence intervals.38,39 Confidence intervals were estimated from 10,000 bootstrap samples.”
From Psychological flexibility, distress, and coping in ovarian cancer survivors. (2026) · cites this paper as [39]
In the citing paper
“Since the antecedent variable is an experimental variable in a randomized study, its causal relation to the mediator and the outcome variable can be interpreted unambiguously102,103.”
From Near transfer to an unrelated N-back task mediates the effect of N-back working memory training on matrix reasoning (2022) · cites this paper as [103]
In the citing paper
“In addition, the Sobel test for measuring the magnitude of mediating effects assumes the normality of the sample distribution when verifying the significance [157,158].”
From A Study on the Effect of Change Management on Organizational Innovation: Focusing on the Mediating Effect of Members’ Innovative Behavior (2021) · cites this paper as [158]
In the citing paper
“On the other hand, SEM analysis has the advantage of using confidence intervals through free and verifiable bootstrapping under normal distribution assumptions [158].”
From A Study on the Effect of Change Management on Organizational Innovation: Focusing on the Mediating Effect of Members’ Innovative Behavior (2021) · cites this paper as [158]
In the citing paper
“In line with existing recommendations, mediation analyses were conducted via bootstrapping, allowing to estimate the confidence intervals of the indirect effects [77]. 5000 bootstrapped samples were used with a 95% confidence interval for each indirect effect.”
From “It’s not you, it’s me”: identity disturbance as the main contributor to interpersonal problems in pathological narcissism (2023) · cites this paper as [77]
In the citing paper
“Bootstrap mediation analyses can be applied when the sample size is small or moderate (e.g., n = 20–60) [79, 80].”
From Improving symptom management for survivors of young adult cancer: rationale and study protocol for a pilot randomized controlled trial (2024) · cites this paper as [80]
In the citing paper
“As previous research indicated that bootstrapping provides more accurate estimates of the indirect effect of standard errors compare to other approaches (Shrout & Bolger, 2002), bootstrapping was used to test the mediation effect in the current study.”
From Mindfulness and attachment security in romantic relationships: The role of emotion regulation as a mediator. (2025) · cites this paper as Shrout & Bolger, 2002
In the citing paper
“Note that a statistically significant total effect of X on Y is not necessary for mediation to occur and that mediation analysis does not require evidence of a total effect prior to investigating direct and indirect effects [63–66].”
From Acceptance as a Mediator for Change in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Persons with Chronic Pain? (2016) · cites this paper as [65]
In the citing paper
“Together these distributed brain networks integrate bottom-up attention with top-down control and generate appropriate behavioral responses to salient stimuli, thereby contributing to behavioral regulation and sound executive function (51–57).”
From Impact of Childhood Trauma on Executive Function in Adolescence—Mediating Functional Brain Networks and Prediction of High-Risk Drinking (2020) · cites this paper as [52]
In the citing paper
“To address this problem, Shrout and Bolger (2002) argued that bootstrapping methods can be extended to designs involving multiple mediation.”
From Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models (2008) · cites this paper as Shrout & Bolger, 2002
Citations
Cites
Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences
Muller, K. E., & Cohen, J. (1989) · Technometrics · doi:10.2307/1270020 · Cited by 99,603
Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.51.6.1173 · Cited by 91,532
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Cohen, J. (1990) · Computers Environment and Urban Systems · doi:10.1016/0198-9715(90)90050-4 · Cited by 65,417
An Introduction to the Bootstrap
Efron, B., & Tibshirani, R. J. (1994) · doi:10.1201/9780429246593 · Cited by 40,500
An Introduction to the Bootstrap
Efron, B., & Tibshirani, R. J. (1993) · doi:10.1007/978-1-4899-4541-9 · Cited by 21,230
Applied Multiple Regression/Correlation Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences
Cohen, P., Cohen, P., West, S. G., & Aiken, L. S. (2014) · Psychology Press eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781410606266 · Cited by 20,870
Draper, N. R., & Smith, H. (2005) · Technometrics · doi:10.1198/tech.2005.s303 · Cited by 17,993
Structural Equations with Latent Variables
Bollen, K. A. (1989) · Wiley series in probability and statistics · doi:10.1002/9781118619179 · Cited by 17,944
Structural Equations with Latent Variables.
Clogg, C. C., & Bollen, K. A. (1991) · Contemporary Sociology A Journal of Reviews · doi:10.2307/2072165 · Cited by 17,475
Asymptotic Confidence Intervals for Indirect Effects in Structural Equation Models
Sobel, M. E. (1982) · Sociological Methodology · doi:10.2307/270723 · Cited by 12,810
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2008) · Behavior Research Methods · doi:10.3758/brm.40.3.879 · Cited by 34,117
SPSS and SAS procedures for estimating indirect effects in simple mediation models
Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2004) · Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers · doi:10.3758/bf03206553 · Cited by 17,383
Reconsidering Baron and Kenny: myths and truths about mediation analysis
Zhao, X., Lynch, J. G., & Chen, Q. (2010) · Journal of Consumer Research · doi:10.1086/651257 · Cited by 12,583
Addressing Moderated Mediation Hypotheses: Theory, Methods, and Prescriptions
Preacher, K. J., Rucker, D. D., & Hayes, A. F. (2007) · Multivariate Behavioral Research · doi:10.1080/00273170701341316 · Cited by 9,973
Beyond Baron and Kenny: Statistical Mediation Analysis in the New Millennium
Hayes, A. F. (2009) · Communication Monographs · doi:10.1080/03637750903310360 · Cited by 9,757
Metadata
- Authors
- Shrout, P. E., & Bolger, N.
- Affiliations
- New York University (US)
- Venue
- Psychological Methods
- Published
- 2002
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 422-445
- ISSN
- 1082-989X (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1463
- OpenAlex
- W2104057213
- Cited by
- 11,335
- References
- 66
- Citations by year
- 2026: 347 · 2025: 533 · 2024: 574 · 2023: 547 · 2022: 708 · 2021: 743 · 2020: 687 · 2019: 685 · 2018: 627 · 2017: 643 · 2016: 657 · 2015: 658 · 2014: 679 · 2013: 658 · 2012: 598
- FWCI
- 44.55
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychological Methods (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01-MH60366, MH60366, R01MH060366)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Statistics and Probability › Advanced Causal Inference Techniques
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Statistics and Probability › Statistical Methods and Bayesian Inference
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
- Keywords
- mediation analysis, bootstrapping, indirect effects, mediators, suppression effect, small sample inference, experimental study, statistical significance testing
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Models, Psychological, Psychology, Stress, Psychological, Guidelines as Topic
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