Mediation vs. Moderation

Quantfish instructor Dr. Christian Geiser explains the difference between statistical mediation and moderation analysis.
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[@MuhammadJR-s7i]

Dear Professor, Thank you for the insightful explanation. Could you please further clarify a tricky concept in moderation analysis? For example, as we know in simple moderation, where there's a significant and positive effect of an independent variable (X) on a dependent variable (Y), and a moderator variable (W) significantly moderates this relationship, a positive sign of the moderating value implies strengthening the relationship, while a negative sign suggests weakening it. However, if there's already a significant and negative relationship, such as Abusive leadership (X) and Employee Creativity (Y) shows a significant but negative relationship by this result(-0.161, p < .05), and Stress (W) moderates this relationship significantly but negatively (-0.201, p < .05), could you explain the implications of this negative moderator value? Does it further weaken or possibly reverse the negative relationship between abusive supervision and employee creativity?

[@BrookBrook-j5c]

In a longitudinal moderation analysis with only two time points, does it make sense that at moderator measured at time 2 can moderate the relation between X at time 1 and Y at time 2?

[@QuantFish]

I would say it probably depends on what the moderator is. If it is a time-invariant variable such as race/ethnicity, then it should not matter. Otherwise it would seem more natural to measure both X and the moderator prior to the outcome Y. But on the other hand, I have often seen moderator analyses in which all three variables (X, moderator, Y) are measured at the same time point. If that's acceptable, then I don't see why a design like yours would be unacceptable. Best, Christian Geiser

[@BrookBrook-j5c]

Thank you for your response. I suspect using a time varying variable/moderator (attentional bias to threat as a moderator of the relation between anxiety T1 and social anxietyT3) does not really make sense. Yet, I have seen cross-sectional/concurrent moderation analyses. Perhaps it all lies in the theoretical argument. Again thank you for your thoughts.@@QuantFish