{"title":"Detecting mediation effects with the Bayes factor: Performance evaluation and tools for sample size determination.","authors":"Xiao Liu, Zhiyong Zhang, Lijuan Wang","doi":"10.1037/met0000670","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Testing the presence of mediation effects is important in social science research. Recently, Bayesian hypothesis testing with Bayes factors (BFs) has become increasingly popular. However, the use of BFs for testing mediation effects is still under-studied, despite the growing literature on Bayesian mediation analysis. In this study, we systematically examine the performance of the BF for testing the presence versus absence of a mediation effect. Our results showed that the false and/or true positive rates of detecting mediation with the BF can be impacted by the prior specification, including the prior odds of the presence of each path (treatment-mediator path or mediator-outcome path) used in the design stage for data generation and in the analysis stage for calculating the BF of the mediation effect. Based on our examination, we developed an R function and a web application to determine sample sizes for testing mediation effects with the BF. Our study provides insights on the performance of the BF for testing mediation effects and adds to researchers' toolbox of sample size determination for mediation studies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":20782,"journal":{"name":"Psychological methods","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Psychological methods","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1037/met0000670","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Testing the presence of mediation effects is important in social science research. Recently, Bayesian hypothesis testing with Bayes factors (BFs) has become increasingly popular. However, the use of BFs for testing mediation effects is still under-studied, despite the growing literature on Bayesian mediation analysis. In this study, we systematically examine the performance of the BF for testing the presence versus absence of a mediation effect. Our results showed that the false and/or true positive rates of detecting mediation with the BF can be impacted by the prior specification, including the prior odds of the presence of each path (treatment-mediator path or mediator-outcome path) used in the design stage for data generation and in the analysis stage for calculating the BF of the mediation effect. Based on our examination, we developed an R function and a web application to determine sample sizes for testing mediation effects with the BF. Our study provides insights on the performance of the BF for testing mediation effects and adds to researchers' toolbox of sample size determination for mediation studies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
期刊介绍：
Psychological Methods is devoted to the development and dissemination of methods for collecting, analyzing, understanding, and interpreting psychological data. Its purpose is the dissemination of innovations in research design, measurement, methodology, and quantitative and qualitative analysis to the psychological community; its further purpose is to promote effective communication about related substantive and methodological issues. The audience is expected to be diverse and to include those who develop new procedures, those who are responsible for undergraduate and graduate training in design, measurement, and statistics, as well as those who employ those procedures in research.
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：
京公网安备 11010802042870号
