Psychology305 G.

Pierce

p.1 Fall2003

MultipleRegressionandMediationAnalysesUsingSPSS
Overview Forthiscomputerassignment,youwillconductaseriesofmultipleregression analysestoexamineyourproposedtheoreticalmodelinvolvingadependent variableandtwoormoreindependentvariables.Studentsinthecoursewillbe dividedintosevengroups,witheachgroupperformingadifferentsetof analysesthatwillbereportedtotheclass.Youwillreportyourfindingstothe classinposterformatonWednesday,November12,2003. Data Youwillconductyouranalysesusingdataobtainedfromthequestionnairethat youdevelopedtotestaspecifictheoreticalmodel.Priortoconductingyour multipleregressionanalyses,youwillneedtoconductaseriesoffactoranalyses toevaluatethefactorstructureofthegroupsofitemsyoudevelopedtoassess eachoftheconstructsinyourtheoreticalmodel.Basedontheresultsofyour factoranalyses,youwillcreatescores(e.g.,theaverageoftheseveralitemsyou developedtomeasureaspecificconstruct)foreachofthevariablesinyour study. Toillustratetheproceduresinvolvedinconductingamultipleregression analysis,wewillusedatafromacampussurveyofrandomlyselectedstudents whocompletedaselfreportquestionnairetoassesstheirattitudestowards alcoholconsumptionandtheirownandothersdrinkingbehavior.Wecantest twocompetingtheoreticalmodels,bothofwhichpostulatetheroleofa mediatingvariable(seeFigure1aand1b).Thedependentvariableinthe theoreticalmodelsisstudentsselfreportedattitudetowarddrinking.The independentvariablesarestudentsselfreporteddrinkingbehavior,andtheir friendsdrinkingbehavior.Studentsattitudestowardsdrinkingwereassessed withthefollowingquestion:Whichstatementbelowaboutdrinkingalcoholic beveragesdoyoufeelbestrepresentsyourownattitude?Theresponseoptions were:(1)Drinkingisneveragoodthingtodo;(2)Drinkingisallrightbuta personshouldnotgetdrunk;(3)Occasionallygettingdrunkisokayaslongasit doesntinterferewithacademicsorotherresponsibilities;(4)Occasionally gettingdrunkisokayevenifitdoesinterferewithacademicsorresponsibilities; (5)Frequentlygettingdrunkisokayifthatswhattheindividualwantstodo. Studentsandfriendsdrinkingbehaviorwereassessedwiththefollowing questions:Howmanyalcoholicdrinks,onaverage,doyouthinkeachofthe followingstudentstypicallyconsumesatpartiesandbars?(Adrinkisabottleof beer,aglassofwine,awinecooler,ashotglassofliquor,oramixeddrink.) Studentsthenratedhowmanydrinkstheyandtheirfriendseachdrank,with16

Psychology305 G.Pierce responseoptionsrangingfrom1to15+.

p.2 Fall2003

Students Drinkin g Behavio r Friends Drinkin g Behavio r Figure1a

Students Attitudes Towards Drinking

Friends Drinkin g Behavio r

Students Attitudes Towards Drinking Students Drinkin g Behavio r

Figure1b ThemodelrepresentedinFigure1adepictsaprocessinwhichstudents attitudestowardsdrinking(i.e.,howmuchdrinkingisthoughttobeokay)are theresultoftheirowndrinkingbehaviorinthiscase,themorestudentsdrink, themorealcoholtheythinkitisokayforindividualstoconsume.Partofthe effectoftheirdrinkingbehaviorontheirownattitudestowardsdrinkingis mediatedbytheimpactoftheirdrinkingontheirfriendsdrinkingbehavior. Note,however,thatinthismodelonlypartoftheimpactofstudentsdrinking behaviorontheirattitudestowardsalcoholconsumptionismediatedbytheir friendsdrinkingbehavior.

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ThemodeldepictedinFigure1bmakesuseofthesamevariables,but hypothesizesthatstudentsattitudestowardsalcoholconsumptionarecausedby theirfriendsdrinkingbehavior,whichsomeofthisimpactbeingmediatedby theirown(thatis,thestudents)drinkingbehavior.Wewilltestthemediational modelillustratedinFigure1aforthepurposesofthisassignment.However,in actualpractice,youwouldwanttotestbothmodelstodeterminewhichmodel bestaccountsfortheobservedassociationsamongthevariables.

ConductingYourAnalyses Inordertoconducttheappropriateregressionanalyses,youwillneedtoloadthe SPSSsoftwareavailableontheCitrixserver;instructionsfordoingthisare availableonaprevioushandout. Inthisassignment,youwillencounterseveralconceptsthatwehavediscussed inclassasyouproceedwithyouranalyses.Theseinclude: coefficientofdetermination sharedvariance uniquevariance residuals semipartialcorrelationcoefficient

Tobegin,weneedtoestablishthreeconditionsinordertodeterminewhether mediatehasoccurred: 1. 2. 3. TheIVpredictstheDV TheIVpredictsthemediator themediatorpredictstheDV

Inordertotestwhetherthesethreeconditionsaremet,weneedtoobtainthe correlationcoefficientsforthesethreerelationships.Todothis,youwillneedto clickontheAnalyzemenu;youwillthenneedtoslideyourmousetothe Correlateoption,andselecttheBivariateoption(seeFigure2).

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Figure2 Next,selectallthreeofthevariablesdisplayedinthewindowontheleft,and clickonthearrowkey totransferthevariablestothewindowontheright. TheSPSSdefaultsettingsspecifythatPearsonProductMomentcorrelation coefficientswillbecomputed,andthattwotailedtestsofsignificancewillbe reported.ItistypicallydesirabletoselecttheOptionsbuttonsothatyoumay requestthemeanandstandarddeviationforeachofthevariables(seeFigure3).

Figure3 TheSPSSoutputwillappearasdepictedinFigure4.

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Figure4 Thecorrelationcoefficientsforeachpath,thatis,thelinksbetweeneachofthe variables,isstatisticallysignificant.Notetheparticularlystrongassociation betweenstudentsreportsoftheirownandtheirfriendsdrinkingbehavior. (Thisassociationissufficientlylargethatitmayleadtoaspecificproblem (termedmulticollinearity)insubsequentstagesoftheanalysis)).Theseresults indicatethat,atthebivariatelevel,eachoftheconditionsnecessarytotestforthe possibleroleofamediatorhasbeenmet. Thenextpartoftheanalysisisperformedwiththeassistanceofinformationthat canbeobtainedatawebpagedevelopedbyKristopherPreacherandGeoffry Leonardelli(http://www.unc.edu/~preacher/sobel/sobel.htm).(Acopyofthe webpageisattachedtothishandout.) InordertoconducttheSobeltestformediation,youwillneedtocomputethe rawregressioncoefficientandthestandarderrorforthisregressioncoefficient fortheassociationbetweentheIVandthemediator,andtheassociationbetween themediatorandtheDV(adjustingfortheIV).Tocomputetheregression coefficientandstandarderrorfortheassociationbetweentheIVandthe mediator,youwillneedtoclickontheAnalyzemenu;youwillthenneedto slideyourmousetotheRegressionoption,andselecttheLinearoption(see Figure5).

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Figure5 Awindowwillappear(seeFigure6).

Figure6 Todefinethedependentvariable(inthiscase,themediatorinthemodel depictedinFigure1a)fortheanalysis,clickonthesecondvariablelistedinthe lefthandsideofthewindow(friendsrateofdrinking,labeledfrn_drnk)and thenclickonthearrowkey forthewindowlabeleddependent.To specifytheIV,clickonthefirstvariableinthewindow(participantsownrateof drinking,labeledI_drnk)andthenclickonthearrowkey forthewindow labeledindependent.Alloftheinformationwewillneedforthispartofthe analysisisprovidedbythedefaulsettingsfortheSPSSRegressionroutine.To completetheanalysis,simplyclickontheOKoptionintheupperrighthand cornerofthebox.Therelevantinformationisprovidedinthefollowingportion

Psychology305 G.Pierce oftheSPSSoutputwindow(seeFigure7).

p.7 Fall2003

Figure7 Therawregressioncoefficient(inthecolumnlabeledBundertheheading unstandardizedcoefficientsintheprintout)fortheassociationbetween studentsdrinkingbehavior(theIV)andtheirfriendsdrinkingbehavior(the mediator)is.75(roundedtotwoplacesafterthedecimalpoint;thisprocedure willbeusedthroughoutthishandout).Thestandarderrorforthisraw regressioncoefficient(labeledStd.Error)is.03. Tocomputethecorrespondingvaluesfortheassociationbetweenfriends drinkingbehaviorandparticipantsattitudestowardsalcoholconsumption (controllingforparticipantsdrinkingbehavior),youwillneedtoclickonthe Analyzemenu;youwillthenneedtoslideyourmousetotheRegression option,andselecttheLinearoption.Youwillneedtomovethepreviously specifieddependentvariable(friendsdrinkingbehavior)tothelefthandportion ofthewindowbyclickingonthevariableinthedependentboxarrowkey besidetheboxmarkeddependent.Youwillthenneedtospecifythe newdependentvariable(participantsattitudestowardalcoholconsumption, labeledalc_att).YouwillalsoneedtospecifythenewIV(inthiscase,the mediatorvariable,labeledfrn_drnk).RemembertoretainoriginalIV,friends drinkingbehavior,intheanalysisasasecondIV.Whenyouhavecompleted thesesteps,thewindowshouldappearasfollows(seeFigure8):

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Figure8 ThenclickontheOKoption.TherelevantoutputwillappearintheSPSS Outputwindow(seeFigure9).

Figure9 Therawregressioncoefficientfortheassociationbetweenfriendsdrinking behaviorandparticipantsattitudestowardsalcoholconsumption(controlling forparticipantsdrinkingbehavior)is.04;thestandarderrorforthisregression coefficientis.03. Tocompletetheanalysis,gotothewebpagefortheSobeltest,andfindthe portionofthepageprovidedforenteringthesevalues(seeFigure10).

Psychology305 G.Pierce

p.9 Fall2003

Figure10 Entertheappropriatevaluesintheirrespectiveplacesinthetable.Toinputthe rawregressioncoefficientfortheassociationbetweenparticipantsdrinking behaviorandtheirfriendsdrinkingbehavior,entertheappropriatevalueinthe portionofthewindownexttotheletteraundertheInput:column.The regressioncoefficientfortheassociationbetweenfriendsdrinkingbehaviorand participantsattitudestowardsalcoholconsumption,enterthevalueinthe portionofthewindownexttotheletterb.Thestandarderrorsforthese regressioncoefficientsshouldbeenteredintheportionofthewindownexttothe labelssaandsbrespectively.ThenclickontheCalculateoption.The followingoutputwillappear(seeFigure11):

Figure11 TheteststatisticfortheSobeltestis1.32,withanassociatedpvalueof.18.The factthattheobservedpvaluedoesnotfallbelowtheestablishedalphalevelof. 05indicatesthattheassociationbetweentheIVandtheDV(inthiscase, participantsdrinkingbehaviorandtheirattitudestowardsalcoholconsumption) isnotreducedsignificantlybytheinclusionofthemediator(inthiscase,friends drinkingbehavior)inthemodel;inotherwords,thereisnoevidenceof mediation.