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Abstract
Child maltreatment research involves modeling complex relationships between multiple
interrelated variables. Directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) are one tool child maltreatment
researchers can use to think through relationships among the variables operative in
a causal research question and to make decisions about the optimal analytic strategy
to minimize potential sources of bias. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the
utility of DAGs for child maltreatment research and to provide a practical resource
to facilitate and support the use of DAGs in child maltreatment research. We first
provide an overview of DAG terminology and concepts relevant to child maltreatment
research. We describe DAG construction and define specific types of variables within
the context of DAGs including confounders, mediators, and colliders, detailing the
manner in which each type of variable can be used to inform study design and analysis.
We then describe four specific scenarios in which DAGs may yield valuable insights
for child maltreatment research: (1) identifying covariates to include in multivariable
models to adjust for confounding; (2) identifying unintended effects of adjusting
for a mediator; (3) identifying unintended effects of adjusting for multiple types
of maltreatment; and (4) identifying potential selection bias in data specific to
children involved in the child welfare system. Overall, DAGs have the potential to
help strengthen and advance the child maltreatment research and practice agenda by
increasing transparency about assumptions, illuminating potential sources of bias,
and enhancing the interpretability of results for translation to evidence-based practice.