QMM: Exercise Sheet 9 - Structural Equation Model:

Mediation and Moderation

Fabien Baeriswyl, Jérôme Reboulleau, Tom Ruszkiewicz

Exercise 1. Recall the dataset with 9 observed variables x1 to x9 used to discuss the latent visual, textual and
speed abilities of children.
a) Compare the original model where all latent variables are correlated with one another to a model where we
only allow covariance between visual and textual but not between visual and speed and textual and speed. In
that second model, also fix the variance of the speed variable to 1.
b) Since the estimation procedure is undertaken with an algorithm that depends on the starting values, we will
try to assign starting values for the direct effects. Accordingly, fix the following values:
– Visual → x2 : 0.8;
– Visual → x3 : 1.2;
– Textual → x5 : 0.5;
– Textual → x6 : 1.0;
– Speed → x8 : 0.7;
– Speed → x9 : 1.8.

Exercise 2. For this exercise, we use the follwing source:

Miles, J.N.V. et. al. Moderated mediation analysis: an illustration using the association of gender with delinquency
and mental health, available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4616155/
This study consists of 2532 adolescents from diverse backgrounds, equally represented in terms of gender. Its goal
is to investigate parental respect as a potential mediator of the relationship between gender and delinquency and
mental health, and to determine whether observed mediation is modedrated by gender.
We start by evaluating whether parental respect mediated the association between gender and delinquency. In what
follows, use the following 3 variables: the gender (male or female); delinquency (which is a score about 12 items, such
as has the individual skipped school, cheated on a test, damaged property... a high score indicating involvement in
theese behaviours); finally, respect for the parents (a scale of respect to parents based on questions such as ”I will
take care of my parents when they’re old”...).
a) State the appropriate variable to investigate if respect is a mediator for male delinquency.
b) Write your equations as you would input them into R.
c) The R model output in lavaan is given below:

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 Comment on the results.
We now want to assess the moderation aspect.
d) State the model variable to investigate if respect is a moderator for male delinquency. Do it as you would in R.
e) The R output can be found below:

Comment about the moderation effect.

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Exercise 3. This exercise is designed to make you work on simulation aspects in the context of Mediation and
Moderation.
a) First, simulate variables X and Y along a mediator M to try to obtain a model that would work well under
the settings of mediation. Determine the effect of the interaction and assess the quality of your model.
b) Again, simulate a set of variables X, M, Y along with one (or multiple) moderator(s) to try to obtain a model
that would work well under the settings of moderation. Determine the effect of the interaction and assess the
quality of your model.