MODERATION ANALYSIS: ISSUES AND GUIDELINES

TLDR

The editorial outlines seven key issues and offers guidelines for justifying moderators and conducting moderation analysis, covering identification, conceptualization, usage, analysis, and reporting. It explains multiple analytical approaches and distinguishes simple moderation from multi‑group analysis. The authors anticipate the editorial will aid academics and students in rigorously performing moderation analysis. This editorial is dedicated to moderation analysis.

Abstract

This editorial is dedicated to moderation analysis. Similar to what we did with the earlier editorial about mediation analysis, this editorial addresses seven key issues related to moderation and provides guidelines to justify the inclusion of moderator(s) and perform the analysis. Specifically, it discusses identification, conceptualization, usage, analysis, and reporting of moderating variables. Additionally, it also explains several approaches pertaining to moderation analysis and highlights the key differences between a simple moderation analysis and a multi-group analysis. We hope that this editorial will be useful to academics and research students to conduct moderation analysis with rigor.