Mediation analysis is an important statistical tool in many research fields, where the joint significance test is widely utilized for examining mediation effects. Nevertheless, the limitation of this mediation testing method stems from its conservative Type I error, which reduces its statistical power and imposes certain constraints on its…

Background: Research reproducibility and effect replication has become a topic of major concern throughout the social sciences. During the last decade, low replication rates of published research findings became a major issue across disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences, leading to the public proclamation of a "replication…