Mediation is one of the analyses people get wrong most when reporting, partly because many still use the Sobel test when bootstrapping has been the standard for years. Here's how to report it properly in APA 7, with the indirect effect and its confidence interval, which is what really matters. The general guide is in how to report results in APA 7.
What a mediation report must include
The heart of the report is the indirect effect (the a×b path) with its confidence interval obtained through bootstrapping (ideally 5,000 or 10,000 resamples, bias-corrected and accelerated: BCa, or percentile). The indirect effect is significant if its CI does not include zero. You also report the individual paths (a, from X to M; b, from M to Y; c', the direct effect), the total effect (c) and, increasingly, a mediation effect size. Important: bootstrapping doesn't give a p-value for the indirect effect; the decision is made with the interval.
Example in the text
"The indirect effect of self-esteem on well-being through social support was significant, ab = 0.14, SE = 0.04, 95% bootstrap CI [0.06, 0.23] (5,000 resamples, BCa). The direct effect remained significant, c' = 0.31, p < .001, suggesting partial mediation."
Avoid two things: reporting only the Sobel test (discouraged because it assumes normality of the indirect effect) and talking about "full vs. partial mediation" as a rigid dichotomy; describe the magnitudes.
Moderated mediation and multiple mediators
If you use PROCESS (Hayes's models) or lavaan, state the model or the syntax. In moderated mediation you report the index of moderated mediation with its bootstrap CI. With several parallel mediators, report each specific indirect effect as well as the total.
Common mistakes
The usual ones: using Sobel instead of bootstrapping, not stating the number of resamples or the type of interval, giving a p-value for the indirect effect (not appropriate with bootstrapping), and confusing the total effect with the indirect one.
Mediation, moderation or a conditional model?
I'm a PhD in psychology. I build your mediation with bootstrapping (PROCESS, lavaan or Mplus), including moderated and multiple-mediator models, and hand you the APA 7 report ready to defend.
Get a free consultation →That's your mediation reported the way any Q1 journal expects. If the model gets complex, we look at it in my statistical consulting for theses and papers.