A researcher examines the relationship between poverty and crime rates for 100 metropolitan areas and finds a zero-order correlation of 0.37.She controls for the percent of families that are headed by single parents and finds a first order partial correlation of 0.06.This is a ____ relationship.
A)direct
B)statistically significant
C)spurious
D)interactive

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The original correlation between poverty and crime rates was not controlled for any other variables, so it is possible that the relationship was spurious (i.e., not a true causal relationship). Controlling for the percent of families that are headed by single parents is important because single-parent households are more likely to be living in poverty and may also have higher crime rates. However, the first order partial correlation is quite small (0.06), suggesting that the relationship between poverty and crime rates is not strong once single parenthood is accounted for.

A Researcher Examines the Relationship Between Poverty and Crime Rates