Residual centering, exploratory and confirmatory moderator analysis, and decomposition of effects in path models containing interaction

Hierarchical moderated regression (HMR) analysis may lead to interpretational problems in tests of mod-erator (interaction) hypotheses. An alternative, resid-ual-centering approach is described and compared to traditional HMR analysis. Procedures for evaluating in-teraction hypotheses and general effect analysis proce-dures are described for path (causal) models contain-ing interactions. Index terms: Confirmatory analysis, Effect analysis in path models, Goodness-of-fit tests, Hierarchical moderated regression, Media-tors, Moderated regression, Multicollinearity, Path models, Residual centering. Hierarchical moderated regression (~1~~) analysis yields appropriate tests of interaction hypothese