MacKinnon D P, Krull J L, Lockwood C M
Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe 85287-1104, USA.
Prev Sci. 2000 Dec;1(4):173-81. doi: 10.1023/a:1026595011371.
This paper describes the statistical similarities among mediation, confounding, and suppression. Each is quantified by measuring the change in the relationship between an independent and a dependent variable after adding a third variable to the analysis. Mediation and confounding are identical statistically and can be distinguished only on conceptual grounds. Methods to determine the confidence intervals for confounding and suppression effects are proposed based on methods developed for mediated effects. Although the statistical estimation of effects and standard errors is the same, there are important conceptual differences among the three types of effects.
本文描述了中介效应、混杂效应和抑制效应之间的统计学相似性。通过测量在分析中加入第三个变量后自变量与因变量之间关系的变化来对每种效应进行量化。中介效应和混杂效应在统计学上是相同的，只能在概念基础上加以区分。基于为中介效应开发的方法，提出了确定混杂效应和抑制效应置信区间的方法。尽管效应和标准误的统计估计是相同的，但这三种效应之间存在重要的概念差异。
