A novel approach to estimating and testing specific mediation effects in educational research: explication and application of Macho and Ledermann's (2011) phantom model approach

This paper addresses the issue of estimating and testing specific indirect effects in recursive structural equation models by considering Macho and Ledermann’s (2011) novel approach to testing specific mediation hypotheses. Mediating processes are critical to understanding the underlying pathways through which predictor variables influence criterion variables. Notwithstanding the utility of assessing mediation for elucidating underlying psychological processes, only recently have educational researchers become increasingly concerned with performing empirical significance tests of specific mediation hypotheses. Following an overview of statistical mediation and consideration of the limitations of widely-used structural equation modelling (SEM) programs in handling tests of specific indirect effects, this paper argues for the use of Macho and Ledermann’s (2011) phantom model approach among applied educational researchers to test specific indirect effect hypotheses.