Fig. 2

Directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) depicting underlying causal models for two empirical scenarios. The first DAG (a) is a scenario testing the hypothesis one and two. Logically, normal narrows from node Z to node Y indicates that Z is a direct cause of Y, or Z influences Y not only through another node. DAG (a) is a scenario illustrating the first and second hypothesis, i.e. whether reserves are associated with anxiety and depression when exposed to the stress of regularisation; this scenario does not describe how the effect occurs, like whether nodes’ effects interact together. DAG (b) is a scenario testing the third hypothesis, i.e. the interaction between the nodes reserve and resources and the regularisation status. Dashed narrows indicate effects of confounding factors. Working hours represents the number of working hours per week.