Anxiety, Affect, Self-Esteem, and Stress: Mediation and Moderation Effects on Depression

PLOS ONE, Dec 2019

Background Mediation analysis investigates whether a variable (i.e., mediator) changes in regard to an independent variable, in turn, affecting a dependent variable. Moderation analysis, on the other hand, investigates whether the statistical interaction between independent variables predict a dependent variable. Although this difference between these two types of analysis is explicit in current literature, there is still confusion with regard to the mediating and moderating effects of different variables on depression. The purpose of this study was to assess the mediating and moderating effects of anxiety, stress, positive affect, and negative affect on depression. Methods Two hundred and two university students (males  = 93, females  = 113) completed questionnaires assessing anxiety, stress, self-esteem, positive and negative affect, and depression. Mediation and moderation analyses were conducted using techniques based on standard multiple regression and hierarchical regression analyses. Main Findings The results indicated that (i) anxiety partially mediated the effects of both stress and self-esteem upon depression, (ii) that stress partially mediated the effects of anxiety and positive affect upon depression, (iii) that stress completely mediated the effects of self-esteem on depression, and (iv) that there was a significant interaction between stress and negative affect, and between positive affect and negative affect upon depression. Conclusion The study highlights different research questions that can be investigated depending on whether researchers decide to use the same variables as mediators and/or moderators.

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Anxiety, Affect, Self-Esteem, and Stress: Mediation and Moderation Effects on Depression

and Stress: Mediation and Moderation Effects on Depression. PLoS ONE 8(9): e73265. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0073265 Anxiety, Affect, Self-Esteem, and Stress: Mediation and Moderation Effects on Depression Ali Al Nima 0 Patricia Rosenberg 0 Trevor Archer 0 Danilo Garcia 0 Ben J. Harrison, The University of Melbourne, Australia 0 1 Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg , Gothenburg, Sweden, 2 Network for Empowerment and Well-Being , University of Gothenburg , Gothenburg , Sweden , 3 Department of Psychology, Education and Sport Science, Linneaus University , Kalmar, Sweden, 4 Center for Ethics, Law, and Mental Health (CELAM) , University of Gothenburg , Gothenburg , Sweden , 5 Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, The Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg , Gothenburg , Sweden Background: Mediation analysis investigates whether a variable (i.e., mediator) changes in regard to an independent variable, in turn, affecting a dependent variable. Moderation analysis, on the other hand, investigates whether the statistical interaction between independent variables predict a dependent variable. Although this difference between these two types of analysis is explicit in current literature, there is still confusion with regard to the mediating and moderating effects of different variables on depression. The purpose of this study was to assess the mediating and moderating effects of anxiety, stress, positive affect, and negative affect on depression. Methods: Two hundred and two university students (males = 93, females = 113) completed questionnaires assessing anxiety, stress, self-esteem, positive and negative affect, and depression. Mediation and moderation analyses were conducted using techniques based on standard multiple regression and hierarchical regression analyses. Main Findings: The results indicated that (i) anxiety partially mediated the effects of both stress and self-esteem upon depression, (ii) that stress partially mediated the effects of anxiety and positive affect upon depression, (iii) that stress completely mediated the effects of self-esteem on depression, and (iv) that there was a significant interaction between stress and negative affect, and between positive affect and negative affect upon depression. Conclusion: The study highlights different research questions that can be investigated depending on whether researchers decide to use the same variables as mediators and/or moderators. - Mediation refers to the covariance relationships among three variables: an independent variable (1), an assumed mediating variable (2), and a dependent variable (3). Mediation analysis investigates whether the mediating variable accounts for a significant amount of the shared variance between the independent and the dependent variablesthe mediator changes in regard to the independent variable, in turn, affecting the dependent one [1,2]. On the other hand, moderation refers to the examination of the statistical interaction between independent variables in predicting a dependent variable [1,3]. In contrast to the mediator, the moderator is not expected to be correlated with both the independent and the dependent variableBaron and Kenny [1] actually recommend that it is best if the moderator is not correlated with the independent variable and if the moderator is relatively stable, like a demographic variable (e.g., gender, socio-economic status) or a personality trait (e.g., affectivity). Although both types of analysis lead to different conclusions [3] and the distinction between statistical procedures is part of the current literature [2], there is still confusion about the use of moderation and mediation analyses using data pertaining to the prediction of depression. There are, for example, contradictions among studies that investigate mediating and moderating effects of anxiety, stress, self-esteem, and affect on depression. Depression, anxiety and stress are suggested to influence individuals social relations and activities, work, and studies, as well as compromising decision-making and coping strategies [4,5,6]. Successfully coping with anxiety, depressiveness, and stressful situations may contribute to high levels of self-esteem and selfconfidence, in addition increasing well-being, and psychological and physical health [6]. Thus, it is important to disentangle how these variables are related to each other. However, while some researchers perform mediation analysis with some of the variables mentioned here, other researchers conduct moderation analysis with the same variables. Seldom are both moderation and mediation performed on the same dataset. Before disentangling mediation and moderation effects on depression in the current literature, we briefly present the methodology behind the analysis performed in this study. Note: * p,.05, ** p,.01. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0073265.t001 Mediation and moderation Baron and Kenny [1] postulated several criteria for the analysis of a media (...truncated)


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Ali Al Nima, Patricia Rosenberg, Trevor Archer, Danilo Garcia. Anxiety, Affect, Self-Esteem, and Stress: Mediation and Moderation Effects on Depression, PLOS ONE, 2013, Volume 8, Issue 9, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0073265