MacKinnon-Lewis and her colleagues (1997) were interested in predictors of social acceptance by peers of 8- to 10-year-old boys. The main predictors they used were the child's rating of parental acceptance and rejection, peers' ratings of acceptance and aggression, and conflict with siblings as observed in a laboratory interaction. They tried several different possible causal models, and concluded that the best was what they called Model 1.
The standardized path coefficients of Model 1 are presented in Figure [15-7], which shows that siblings whose mothers were perceived and observed to be more rejecting were observed and reported to be more aggressive with one another than were siblings whose mothers were less rejecting. Moreover, boys who experienced more aggressive sibling interactions were more likely to be nominated by their peers as being aggressive and were less accepted by their peers. Although fathering failed to evince a direct influence on sibling aggression, an indirect effect was evidence as a result of the fact that less accepting fathering was related to more rejecting mothering.
Explain the method they used, illustrating it with some sample results, to a person who is familiar with multiple regression and partial correlation in a general way but not with path analysis.
In Figure 15-7,

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Father Acceptance 03 ling .37 Target Child's -26* AggressionAcceptance with Peers Aggression 29t* Mother Rejection