文档介绍：Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Copyright 1986 by the American Psychological Association, Inc.
1986, \<*. 51, No. 6, 1173-1182 0022-3514/86/
The Moderator-Mediator Variable Distinction in Social Psychological
Research: Conceptual, Strategic, and Statistical Considerations
Reuben M. Baron and David A. Kenny
University of Connecticut
In this article, we attempt to distinguish between the properties of moderator and mediator variables
at a number of levels. First, we seek to make theorists and researchers aware of the importance of
not using the terms moderator and mediator interchangeably by carefully elaborating, both concep-
tually and strategically, the many ways in which moderators and mediators differ. We then go beyond
this largely pedagogical function and delineate the conceptual and strategic implications of making
use of such distinctions with regard to a wide range of phenomena, including control and stress,
attitudes, and personality traits. We also provide a pendium of analytic procedures ap-
propriate for making the most effective use of the moderator and mediator distinction, both sepa-
rately and in terms of a broader causal system that includes both moderators and mediators.
The purpose of this analysis is to distinguish between the cal function of this article is to clarify for experimental re-
properties of moderator and mediator variables in such a way searchers the importance of respecting these distinctions.
as to clarify the different ways in which conceptual variables This is not, however, the central thrust of our analysis. Rather,
may account for differences in peoples' behavior. Specifically, our major emphasis is on contrasting the moderator-mediator
we differentiate between two often-confused functions of third functions in ways that delineate the implications of this distinc-
variables: (a) the moderator function of third variables, which tion for theory and research. We focus particula