Step 3, the mediating variable must influence the dependent variable significantly (β3
must be significant).
Step 4, to establish whether the mediating variable can fully mediate the
relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable, the
effects of independent variable on the dependent variable, controlling for
mediating variable, should be zero or β4 is not significant; whereas partial
mediation which exists need to have significant relation, and independent effect need to
be lower than the step 2.
Details of the regression analyses are revealed in Figure 2.