Mediation (statistics) - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediation_(statistics)In statistics, a mediation model seeks to identify and explain the mechanism or process that underlies an observed relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variablevia the inclusion of a third hypothetical variable, known as a mediator variable (also a mediating variable, intermediary variable, or intervening variable). Rather than a direct causal relationship between the in…