The mediating effect of dietary patterns on the association between mother’s education level and the physical aggression of five-year-old children: a population-based cohort study

Table 4 Results for the mediation analysis (n = 18,513)

		M1: Healthy dietary pattern				M2: High-fat-sugar-salt dietary pattern				Y: Physical aggression
Direct effects		Coeff.	SE	P		Coeff.	SE	P		Coeff.	SE	P
Constant		3.076	0.026	<.001		2.413	0.032	<.001		1.022	0.054	<.001
X: Maternal education (6 months)	a₁	0.014	0.002	<.001	a₂	−0.042	0.002	<.001	c’	− 0.005	0.002	0.036
M1: Healthy dietary pattern (5 years old)									b₁	−0.096	0.013	<.001
M2: High-fat-sugar-salt dietary pattern (5 years old)									b₂	0.123	0.008	<.001
Cov 1: Child sex (ref: girl) (6 months)		0.008	0.006	0.157		0.008	0.009	0.405		0.120	0.010	<.001
Cov 2: Married parents (ref: not-married) (6 months)		−0.002	0.010	0.839		−0.013	0.016	0.437		0.057	0.017	0.001
Cov 3: Physical aggression (3 years old)		−0.024	0.003	<.001		0.090	0.005	<.001		0.291	0.006	<.001
Cov 4: Mental distress (5 years old)		−0.020	0.005	<.001		0.004	0.008	0.574		0.109	0.008	<.001
Cov 5: Household income (6 months)		0.044	0.003	<.001		−0.032	0.004	<.001		−0.017	0.005	<.001
		R² = 0.048				R² = 0.065				R² = 0.178
		F(6, 18,506) = 154.34, p < .001				F(6, 18,506) = 213.21, p < .001				F(8, 18,504) =500.64, p < .001
		Effect	Bootstrap SE	Bootstrap 95% CI
Total effect of X on Y	c	−0.011	0.002	−0.016	−0.007
Direct effect of X on Y	c’	−0.005	0.002	−0.009	0.000
Indirect effect of X on Y		Effect	Bootstrap SE	Bootstrap 95% CI
M1: Healthy dietary pattern (5 years old)	a₁ × b₁	−0.001	0.000	−0.002	−0.001
M2: High-fat-sugar-salt dietary pattern (5 years old)	a₂ × b₂	−0.005	0.000	−0.006	−0.004

a₁ and a₂ = effects of maternal education on healthy dietary pattern and high-sugar-fat-salt dietary pattern
b₁ and b₂ = effects of healthy and high-sugar-fat-salt dietary patterns on physical aggression
C = total effects of maternal education on physical aggression
C′ = direct effect of maternal education on physical aggression after adjustment for dietary patterns and covariates
a_i × b_i = mediation effects of dietary patterns on the relationship between maternal education and physical aggression
CI confidence interval
X independent variable
Mi mediators
Cov covariates

ISSN: 1471-2431