Third, a combined model has been created that included both direct effects and mediator effects in which the gamma coefficients for direct relationships were estimated freely. The difference between the chi-square values for the mediator and combined models was computed and the results were compared with the chi-square value within 1 df (χ2critical =3.841). The model with the smaller chi-square was considered a better model (Diamantopoulos & Siguaw, 2000).