Confounding in statistical mediation analysis: What it is and how to address it.

ABSTRACT: Psychology researchers are often interested in mechanisms underlying how randomized interventions affect outcomes such as substance use and mental health. Mediation analysis is a common statistical method for investigating psychological mechanisms that has benefited from exciting new methodological improvements over the last 2 decades. One of the most important new developments is methodology for estimating causal mediated effects using the potential outcomes framework for causal inference. Potential outcomes-based methods developed in epidemiology and statistics have important implications for understanding psychological mechanisms. We aim to provide a concise introduction to and illustration of these new methods and emphasize the importance of confounder adjustment. First, we review the

SUBMITTER: Valente MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5726285 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature