Mediation analysis interpretation. negative path c but positive and significant paths for a and b Hello I have a problem interpreting the results of my mediation analysis (Baron and Kenny)
Path a between my IV (X) and M is positive and significant.
Path b between my Mediator and DP(Y) is also positive and significant.
Path c, the direct path between my IV(X) and DP(Y) is negative and significant.
Now when I add my mediator the relationship between X and Y becomes "more negative". it goes from -0.031 to -0.038 (significant value 0.000)
What does this say about the Mediator?
(I know there are other ways to analyze mediation but I want to wrap my head around this approach)
Thank you!!

This sounds like a suppressor effect. They are often pretty tricky to interpret.
Here's one example, that is similar to yours, except the direct effect switches from positive to negative: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12595384/
This is in medical students, looking at conscientiousness. Basically, before medical school, conscientiousness positively predicts grades.
Towards the end of medical school, the direct effect of conscientiousness is positive, and the indirect effect goes negative.
Before medical school, conscientious students work harder. In medical school all students work as hard as possible. Conscientiousness helps earlier with grades, but that help needs to be removed at the end, because if you're not working as hard as you can, you're not in medical school any more.
